Clients seem to change agencies with alarming regularity, but, says UM’s Kara Osborne, there are ways for agencies to foster longer-lasting relationships that work to the benefit of both parties.

Despite the prevailing trend of client churn, some agency-client relationships have demonstrated remarkable longevity. The partnership between AMV and Sainsbury’s lasted 40 years, and even this was eclipsed by the 75 years Ford spent with WPP.

Generally, media agency contracts are much shorter-term, spanning three to five years. This means churn is often driven by routine reviews mandated by procurement teams, which makes it essential that agencies consistently demonstrate exceptional value if they hope to extend client relationships beyond the typical cycle.

Clients usually move on because their partner cannot prove the value of the spend, or they aren’t getting that “indefinable something” out of the relationship. Cultural alignment and shared values often come into play, for example. When agency and client share similar principles, it helps them consistently build up trust over time and develop a deeper connection.

After spending twenty years in adland, I’ve pondered how we might foster longer-lasting partnerships with clients, so let’s address some fundamental questions to see how we might make that happen.

Are you a “good partner”?

This entails more than just delivering on briefs; that’s a given. We know from research and talking to our own clients that they are looking for their agency partners to show up as one connected team.

There are two clear benefits here; the first is seamless communication, the other is the opportunity to move at speed to impact what is happening in culture. As the media agency, we often find ourselves the consistent agency partner for multi-brand portfolio clients. This places us in a privileged position to add even more value to the client experience by leading all partner agencies to maximize delivery through a unified way of working.

Partnership extends client-side to the CMO as well, a good partner needs to be proactive, add value, and remain transparent about business realities. Understanding the perspectives of key client figures like CEOs and CFOs on media spend is therefore crucial in helping make a case for investment. It’s too easy to view the world just from our own perspective, rather than those with different – if still connected – priorities.
Are your data and operations up to standard?
Data is the currency of a successful relationship, but an over-dependence on AI and big tech’s black boxes results not just in a race to the bottom, but a race to the mean. The ongoing risk of everyone investing whole-heartedly in automation is that all media ends up looking the same. So, it’s important we’re not slaves to the algorithms.

Rather, we should focus on identifying the gaps in data in order to make media spend more effective by thinking harder about the entirety of the connected customer journey. This means understanding partners’ various assets and how this work together. For instance, CRM is not typically managed by media agencies, but we should still stay on top of the big picture to help senior marketers navigate internal challenges.

Understanding the pain points can help align strategies and remove any friction or misunderstandings between clients and agencies, and hopefully give the relationship some extra lasting-power.

Are you really thinking bespoke?

The ability of a media agency to make the right investments in order to deliver tangible results for their clients hinges on the alignment of strategy to clearly defined outcomes. This can only work with a thorough and nuanced approach to execution and measurement.
This means it’s critical that agencies can assess whether their media investments are really driving the specific business results clients are looking for. It involves moving beyond a one-size-fits-all approach to measurement and embracing the complexities of different metrics in order to identify which are most pertinent to the client’s goals.

Furthermore, marketing – inherently a dynamic field – requires an openness to various theories and strategies. Relying solely on one marketing theory can be restrictive and is unlikely to serve a client’s evolving needs. Agencies must therefore remain adaptable, continuously exploring different approaches based on the most relevant data.

We should recognize that complacency is a risk that needs to be actively managed as well. Agencies should avoid becoming too comfortable with any strategy, no matter how proven it may be. Instead, we should commit to ongoing analysis and adaptation if we, as an industry, are to stay relevant and effective.

This proactive stance not only ensures that agencies keep pace with industry changes, it also demonstrates a commitment to meeting and exceeding client expectations to foster more durable relationships.

Do you have the right diversity of thought?

It’s common sense that having diverse teams on accounts will help build stronger client relationships and turbocharge creative thinking. By bringing together individuals with varied backgrounds, experiences, and viewpoints, we can generate more effective solutions and avoid groupthink (always the fastest route to creative stagnation).

Diversity equally allows us to identify potential weaknesses or blind spots in our strategies, leading to more robust and impactful campaigns. Conversely, when we have a limited range of perspectives, we risk missing the subtleties of market trends, which can hinder the effectiveness of campaigns.

And while some clients may already have diverse internal teams, it’s unlikely they’ll cover the full gamut of thought, perspective, culture and experience needed to speak to wider audiences. It’s therefore the active role of the agency to offer a broader perspective, complementing the client’s understanding and providing a more holistic approach.

Are you speaking the right language?

It perhaps goes without saying that the strength and clarity of communication between an agency and client are essential in fostering a relationship that stands the test of time. But there are some more nuanced ways of looking at this issue.

Using the right language is crucial. That’s not just about avoiding technical jargon; it’s truly grasping and aligning to the client’s goals and priorities, which means understanding and communicating the differentiated needs of stakeholders across the business.

Asking the right questions – and asking lots of them – is critical. This involves getting under the skin of conversations to uncover the subtleties, often unspoken, of the client’s needs and challenges. You won’t be able to deliver lasting change unless you understand the minutiae of those requirements.

In practice this means asking the right questions of the client’s data and using the insights generated to act as a translator between the client and the market. Media strategies that truly resonate respond to the target audience’s own changing needs.

Analysis shouldn’t just happen retrospectively at the end of a campaign: what went well, what didn’t, what should we do differently next time? It should be an ongoing process of analyzing performance data and interrogating the right metrics to enable you to refine strategies incrementally to maximize reach and engagement.

A persistently curious mindset is what underpins almost everything I’ve outlined, especially in light of how quickly emerging technologies are impacting the media landscape. Agencies need to keep asking pertinent questions, exploring new strategies and making the most of their diversity of thought to stay at the forefront of innovation.

And, I would suggest, that is how you deliver that “indefinable something” that gives some relationships such lasting power.