What is the “aha!” moment when a marketer should realise that their company needs a new agency?  

Client-agency tenure the USA is receding alarmingly: from 7.2 years in the mid 80’s, to 5.1 years by 2000, to hovering at an estimated 3 years in 2010.

Why so many bad marriages and quick divorces? What is the “aha” moment when a Marketer should realized “our company needs a review

How A Redefined Client-Agency Relationship Must Spur Change Within Client Organizations

Capitulation came down with a thud last Wednesday morning at the 4A’s annual conference in Austin. Perhaps missing the irony, the CEOs of the biggest advertising holding companies pointed to fiercely independent micro-network Wieden + Kennedy as the agency they admire most.

Stop Blaming Procurement -- CMOs Can Help Matters By Demanding Focus Shift Away From Price

Most agencies are pretty much the same. They have the same basic capabilities. They all claim to have proprietary tools or processes. They may have different labels for what they do, but the approach and yield is essentially the same at any holding company, global agency or small agency.

by Avi Dan Published: October 12, 2010file:

The economic recovery is shaky. Consumers are spending cautiously. Unemployment remains stubbornly in double digits.

by Avi Dan Published: August 25, 2010

 One of the most important decisions a CMO makes is agency selection. These days, client-agency relationships fray faster than ever.

by Avi Dan

Published: June 15, 2010

Call it the "Goldilocks" approach to getting the best out of your agency. As agencies converge on Cannes next week to celebrate creative excellence,

Some big marketers have begun shifting to value-based compensation instead of paying agencies a fee for labor hours. Value-based compensation aligns remuneration more closely with results, such as sales, share of market or brand awareness.

Technology and good deeds will help.

Brand loyalty is crucial for brand health. Ad agency founder Jim Mullen once said: "Of all the things that your company owns, brands are far and away the most important and the toughest. Founders die. Factories burn down. Machinery wears out. Inventories get depleted. Technology becomes obsolete. Brand loyalty is the only sound foundation on which business leaders can build enduring, profitable growth."

Published: January 19, 2010

It took the telephone 45 years to penetrate half the homes in America; radio, less than 20; color TV, 15; computers, 10; cellphones, eight; and the internet, a mere six years. The speed of change is accelerating.

by Avi Dan
Published: May 19, 2009 in Advertising Age
            
If today's frugality and shrinking markets are the new normal, are marketers ready for it?

These were some of the hottest creative shops of the '70s and '80s. As they
disappeared, swallowed by bigger fish, some of the creativity in our
business disappeared with them. Agencies today are not as entrepreneurial as
those who set the creative standard a generation ago.

What would Don Draper, the brilliant creative director of the fictional advertising agency Sterling Cooper in the show Mad Men do if he joined the business today? If he were catapulted back into advertising agency future in a souped up DeLorean, he won’t recognize it: no cigarettes, no sexism, and no three martini lunches. The business got dull for the frat boys.

By Avi Dan
Published: January 28, 2008 in Advertising Age

Welcome to 2008. It's going to be ugly.

For CMOs, existential danger lurks with every incoming report about the sagging economy and the looming recession. Recessions are tough for those in charge of top-line growth, especially considering the average two-year tenure -- in good times.