When millions of dollars are at stake

How well is my agency performing? All advertisers want their agency to do what they have promised and contracted to do, and to improve their performance.

It is becoming increasingly important to run regular agency appraisals, assessments and performance measurements as agencies are in constant flux (so too are advertisers) and increasingly agencies remuneration is linked to performance. Many advertisers are happy to incentivise their agencies to perform exceptionally but need accurate measures as millions of dollars of fees may be at stake.

But what is the best way to define, measure and assess agency performance?

Is it best to have a qualitative and subjective assessment of the multitude of aspects that constitute an agencies performance or a quantitative objective scoring of key criteria, or perhaps both?

There is no one answer. The right answer of course will depend on the advertiser, the agency and the nature of the relationship. Each advertiser and agency relationship will need a carefully constructed set of measures and means of defining whether it is performing optimally.

Any advertiser needs a fair insightful system that not only “scores” the agency, but more importantly gives insight on how the agency can improve not just its work, but its relationship with the advertiser.

The ideal agency appraisal, assessment and performance management system must:

• Be able to manage the performance of any type of agency
• Be able to provide benchmarks of performance
• Be able to identify opportunities for enhancement by nature of service, level of service, geography, division or project and so on.
• Be adaptable to the needs of each advertiser, and allow for weighting of the results to match their business realities
• Be simple, easy to use, and take little time
• Be cost effective
• Give the opportunity to capture feedback in quantitative and qualitative means
• Be able to be linked to contractual remuneration agreements

However, what is perhaps most valuable of all is that the results can be interpreted, and action plans and enhancement plans can be built based on real world insight.

Flock has worked with many of the legacy systems in the market but felt, whilst many have good aspects and merits, there was no one tool or service that met all these criteria for effective agency assessments, appraisals, and performance measures. That’s why we created our own Agency Appraisal Tool. We have worked with agencies, advertisers, and research experts to define the best questions and scoring mechanics. We have worked with the best survey software company to develop the tool and we have worked hard to develop insightful and arresting visual reports and action plans.

Importantly, The Flock Agency Appraisal is differentiated by the fact the consultants that analyse results, interview, and agree “fix plans” have run agency holding companies, creative agencies, media agencies, digital agencies, and been senior marketers; we have over 500 years of experience. No other agency evaluator can match this.

A few samples from our service are shown below, and further details are available here. See how we helped a Global Automotive company here.  If you wish to enhance your agencies performance by better measurement please do reach out to us!