iMedia's breakout session on client, agency and publisher relationships provided a forum for a frank discussion on how to build and maintain strong, cooperative and more productive interactions.

Today's marketing business is no small affair. As companies struggle with promoting themselves and their products, they are becoming more reliant on the expertise and creativity of their agencies and publishers. Prevailing assumptions are that both of these vendors want to provide their clients with impactful, strategic ideas, which often makes them necessary business partners in the media landscape. Yet, there are inherent tensions between the two factions, and thus there's a pressing need for solutions that will help them work together to optimize performance, value delivery and yields.

On these assumptions, Doug Weaver, president of Upstream Group, led Tuesday's breakout session on agency, client and publisher relationships. As part of the interactive dialogue, Weaver enlisted the expertise of publishers Tom Arrix, SVP of sales and marketing solutions at Univision Online, and Walker Jacobs, VP of sales for Reuters Media. On the agency side, Weaver was joined by Jeff Silverstein, managing partner at CL&S, and Dianne Hayashi, group media director at AKQA.

Sharing knowledge, insight and responsibility
Most issues raised by agency and publisher participants in the session revolved around communication. For example, all presenters agreed that the lack of open communication is the biggest process issue that stands in the way of idea generation.

Silverstein explained it thusly: "Agencies are trying to communicate beyond the objectives. The sellers already have something in their minds that they're trying to push, so they aren't necessarily listening to us. Communication is often lacking."

Walker posed that the communication breakdown can also come from the agency side: "We have an issue when agencies silo themselves with clients. It's not helpful to anyone. There should be total transparency," he said.

Related to the siloing effect, publishers said they were concerned that they were being left out of meetings with clients, while agency personnel were concerned that publishers do end-runs around them when they are given the chance to speak directly with clients. Some of the reasons attendees gave for these communication blockades were concerns about losing control of budgets, and the potential for publishers, who may not have been involved in primary strategic development, might go off strategy in their efforts to deliver the big ideas.

Yet, participants were nearly universal in their belief that good communication provides the best potential solution to many of their business concerns. Arrix said that the communication has to be there every day. "You must establish trust, respect and integration up and down the organization. It won't happen overnight, but if there's a real sense of partnership, it will work for everyone."

Hayashi agreed that it's all about relationship building, stating that, "media-side people have to view the agency as the client as well. When it comes to the actual buy, the agency may be making the decisions, so they are the clients as well as the suppliers."

The RFP: business opportunity or barrier?
Another big issue that the group discussed was the Request for Proposal, and its value in the creative and sales processes. Not surprisingly, it was cited as one of the biggest barriers to creativity and cooperation.

Walker says of this common staple of the process, "Its intention is good in that it levels the playing field. But it has been so misused because [publishers] may not know what's truly going on. It's not a useful way to spend our time."

Arrix believes that the RFP is an awful process for creativity. "Inevitably, the bottom line is a big idea, and it's nearly impossible to come up with this without the opportunity to sit down and share ideas directly," he said.

Participants also noted that creative seems to be taking a backseat as reporting/tracking becomes more important. Some expressed their hopes that a solution could be found, other than the RFP, that would allow them to get more creative, as well as cut through the machinery and process.

In fact, many participants questions how agencies are getting what they want from the RFP at all, given the short turnaround time publishers often must work under. Those on the agency side, however, struck back by reminding everyone that the time tables are often set by the clients, not the agencies. Yet, most agreed that when the client wants a big idea, it's up to the agency to push back so all parties have sufficient time to generate and execute them.

Silverstein also attested to the importance of managing client expectations in these tightly timed situations: "Clients can't expect a Picasso in three days." 

Walker stated that he often says no to short-term RFPs. "I know in two minutes if my site is a good match for a client, he said. When it just isn't, or there's not enough time to truly convey the value of the partnership, he feels completing the RFP on an insufficient turnaround time is not a good investment of his team's efforts. "The key theme is talent, or lack thereof, he said. "Think about what deals to back away from so you can spend more time focusing on what you can be successful at."

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