Get the best of both worlds

Today’s rise of procurement departments has led to a new agenda of accountability, forcing agencies to cut margins, amend working processes and become transparent.

At the same time, CMOs are under increasing pressure to justify marketing activity and performance. Clients are reasserting their power in the relationship with the agency.

We are far away from the “good old days” of the advertising industry where a typical view would be “The agency does the ads and the company focuses on its products…” - the era when agencies held the creative and buying power.

This has led to the phenomenon called decoupling, which is when a company separates and outsources parts of the advertising process rather than allowing the agency to control the whole supply chain. In this way, clients can get the agencies and production companies they want at prices dictated by the market.

Consistency maintained?

But decoupling is rarely the optimal solution that one might think. Agencies tend to have a long tradition of competence in client-handling skills and a sophisticated understanding of that relationship. They provide a critical buffer and the right environment for an approved idea to evolve into relevant and consistent marketing elements.

If a production house assumes that role, it will have to meet client concerns about the consistency of the brand message. This can detract from the creative process and take a production company away from its raison d’être.

So, if the client wants to decouple, it runs the risk of a fragmented brand message and varying degrees of consistency. Not just creatively, but in the whole scheme of agency services – from business affairs, legal issues, the acquisition and retention of knowledge, ongoing production deals and ‘continuity’ .

There is a whole lot that agencies bring to the table that sometimes clients don’t realize.

Lean-driven agencies

But you don’t have to choose between cost reductions and brand consistency. This dilemma can be solved without decoupling by using a lean-driven agency.

AdPeople is such a lean-driven agency – based on an efficiency mindset delivering ROI, rapid time-to-market and brand consistency to its clients. AdPeople has a thorough understanding of the marketing supply chain and has optimised each part of it by the use of lean processes and technology to support them.

AdPeople has more than 10 years of experience as a lean driven agency and a proven track record that defines the best cases of decoupling.