Step 11
11. Road test the finalist agencies
Don't ask for spec creative or free strategic thinking. Instead, ask agencies to participate in a live 90-minute strategy session. This more than anything will give you a live feel for what it will be like to work with any given agency team.
In structuring the live working session, follow this formula:
- Prepare real data to identify and document a real business issue or scenario that the agency will face. Supply this to the agency one week ahead of the session. Be sure all participating agencies have signed non-disclosure agreements in advance.
- Insist that only two senior people and the working team assigned to your business can participate.
- Limit the session to 90 minutes. Set a clear outcome for the meeting. For example, the meeting should yield a campaign theme and three tactics to address this particular marketing problem.
- Have your team -- the people who will interact with the agency each day --participate in the session. Run it as if the relationship existed.
- Use an independent leader. Don't lead the session if you are assessing the outcome.
- Devise a scorecard that accounts for the quality of the ideas, the creativity of the team, the experience demonstrated, and the chemistry between the participants.
- Measure how prepared the agencies were and what outside data, information, or experience they brought to the party.
- Try to understand the relative contributions of the senior agency people versus the working team members.
- Ask your people which team they liked best and why.
- Weight this exercise relative to the other intelligence you've developed to make a final decision.
Finding the right agency partner can be a crucial step toward getting better business results. You want to break through the expected and sidestep the pat answers. The process should force contenders out of their comfort zones. Agencies have significant differences in style, skill, and leadership. Using these concepts should give you a head start toward identifying them and comparing them to your individual marketing needs.
Daniel Flamberg is managing partner at Booster Rocket.
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