Want more respectful, more productive relationships between your digital and traditional agencies? Take a look at how some common complaints can be defused in order to build stronger integrated campaigns.

At one of last year's iMedia Agency Summits, a video session discussed the right time for an interactive outfit to dump a client. The speakers recommend that you pull the trigger on the client if there is no respect, they no longer listen to you or value your contribution, the relationship has become abusive, or most of your employees who serve on the account are very unhappy.

Surprisingly, that kind of dysfunction seems to often occur in the interactive agency and traditional agency relationship, particularly when the interactive agency is embedded within a traditional agency. The interactive unit feels that it does not get the respect it deserves, its contributions are not valued, and thus, its employees are likely unhappy, regardless of the client.

Unfortunately, the interactive component of the agency cannot pull the trigger on its traditional agency. Its livelihood, and most of the work that supports its very existence, are sourced from the agency. They desperately need their agency partners. At the same time, the traditional agency needs its interactive unit to survive. With the explosive growth in interactive in recent years, having an interactive competency within an agency has become critical to business. Interactive is the future, and for an agency to play effectively in this new age, it must be strong in interactive knowledge and capability. As a result, many traditional agencies have started interactive units so they can also enjoy the boom in online demand.

However, it is an open secret that relationships between many traditional agencies and their interactive units are strained at best, and sometimes openly hostile. Since the interactive unit cannot fire the hand that feeds it, and the agency cannot abandon the unit that will make it relevant to the future, the importance of improving collaboration between the two cannot be overemphasized. The interactive agencies must collaborate well with their traditional partners to deliver any stand-alone interactive solutions effectively.

A house divided
Good collaboration is particularly more critical when you have to deliver effective online and offline integrated marketing campaigns. It helps you deliver cost effective solutions that are aligned and consistent with your client's brands. In addition, both your online and offline teams will work in an environment where they are not only happy about the products they developed but delighted about the process of developing them. There is little or no finger pointing, no blaming, and no hostile work environment.

From my experience in the interactive agency world, whenever there are collaboration problems between interactive and traditional agency personnel, you'll hear some typical complaints (outlined in the figure below). Despite the differences in the specific complaints of each side, they would both agree that the common issues in the relationship are lack of trust, not listening, lack of respect, and frequent miscommunication.

Problems in the interactive – traditional agency relationship (Click to enlarge)

Where each one is coming from
Typical complaints from most interactive teams would include that the agency barges into its work inappropriately and wants to order the team around and control its output. The agency does not understand or appreciate the complexity of interactive work. In addition, interactive teams complain that the agency does not involve them early and properly, and when they do, they sometimes ignore their expertise and recommendations. The interactive folks feel particularly upset by how the agency keeps changing the work and increasing the scope, while still holding them to the previously agreed deadlines.

The agency, on the other hand, typically complains that interactive folks believe their work is so special that they are creating what cannot be done by anybody else. The agency would argue that creative is creative, whether it is interactive or print. Agency folks also feel frustrated by the poor knowledge of the brand shown by the interactive team. They would agree that they are the gatekeepers of the brand but would quickly tell you that the interactive personnel need to be immersed and know more about the brand so that solutions are aligned with strategy and brand positioning. They feel looked down upon by this new breed of "young people" who think they are the future and say that the print world is a dinosaur heading toward extinction.

If you examine these typical complaints and subject them to detailed root cause analysis, you discover considerable common ground. This common ground is what must become the basis for identifying and building joint opportunities that both sides would agree to pursue. Below is a list of joint opportunities uncovered when you analyze typical interactive/traditional agency collaboration issues.

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