So many things tend to fall through the cracks when more than one agency is involved in a project. Here's how to avoid getting stuck at a disadvantage.
The fact that major marketers rely on a number of agencies to produce their integrated marketing campaigns seems counter-intuitive to me. With more agencies and holding companies able to handle communications and advertising in an end-to-end fashion, you would think we would see more consolidation than the introduction of "best in class" approaches to tackling integration.
In any case, interactive agencies and full-service agencies alike are finding themselves needing to work with other shops on a more frequent basis. Perhaps a client divides up its creative business and media work. Or maybe it has one agency plan while another buys. Maybe it's dividing up different kinds of interactive work.
Whatever the situation, more and more of the responsibility for timely delivery of work depends on input from other agencies and is outside your realm of control. Such situations always make me nervous to some degree, and they should give you pause as well.
The following are five things that tend to fall through the cracks when more than one agency is involved in a project, and what you can do to make sure you're not delayed or disadvantaged with respect to turning out a compelling final work product.