Agency Whispering (Virtual)

How to Elicit Great Performance and Maximize Efficiencies with Your Ad/Media/Digital Agency
(Virtual Half Day Workshop)

Virtual Workshop Description
One of the most important determinants of success for a marketer is the ability to work effectively and get the best out of an agency. After all, if the agency is doing great work, it will have a huge multiplier effect on the overall marketing budget and provide the brand with a clear competitive advantage. But that advantage is put at risk when marketer/agency relationships underperform or run awry.

Unfortunately, very few marketers receive any formal training on how to manage this relationship outside of mirroring the actions of their superiors (who often likewise did not receive formal training). or looking to other departments like procurement for guidance. But marketers soon find out that the techniques used to manage suppliers are woefully inadequate for an agency, which poses completely different management challenges.

It’s easy to assume that all underperformance is the agency’s fault, and that the solution lies in switching out the team servicing the account or even finding a new agency. But if the problems were caused by improper agency management, they will resurface with the new team or agency, and this will eventually bring consequences for both the brand and the marketer. The good news is that managing the agency is not difficult if you understand the underlying dynamics and motivations that drive agency performance.

In this highly interactive workshop, led by a 30-year veteran of Leo Burnett as well as brands like Unilever, SC Johnson, and Kellogg’s, marketing, marcom, and advertising managers will learn what makes managing the agency different from dealing with other suppliers, and how to inspire great work. They will learn the nine steps to effectively working with their agency partners that make up best practice, in order to avoid making the typical missteps that may have derailed projects in the past, and lead to more efficient and effective outcomes of marketer/creative collaboration.

Target Audience
This workshop is ideal for:

• Brand, Marketing, MarCom and Advertising Managers who work with an external or in-house Agency
• Procurement Managers who are involved in Agency fee negotiations

Virtual Workshop Benefits
The benefits of attending this workshop fall under the following key drivers of growth: improving marketing effectiveness, increasing marketing efficiencies, maximizing marketing ROI, and improving employee alignment and satisfaction.

This workshop helps attendees improve marketing effectiveness by teaching them:

• How agencies differ from advertisers and what they need to work effectively
• How to work with the agency to develop better comms solutions that impact short-term sales and long-term brand equity

This workshop helps attendees to increase marketing efficiency by teaching them:

• To better manage the work process with the agency to get to creative solutions, faster and with less re-work
• To get different agency partners work together more effectively

This workshop helps attendees improve marketing ROI by teaching them:

• How to harness the full capacity of the agency to provide a multiplier effect for the totality of the marketing budget

This workshop helps attendees improve employee alignment and satisfaction by teaching them:

• How to better manage agency partners and deepen their management toolkit
• Best practices, so that they can become a better client for whom the Agency will go the extra mile.

Download the full agenda here