I recently had the honor of speaking to the North Texas Verizon marketing team on “How To Work With An Agency.” This was a very clever group of marketing professionals, not to mention very adept presenters. The forum started with the task of reviewing creative concepts in less than one minute and then pitching the concepts to the group. Of course, planning the situation, some of the boards had spelling errors, incorrect punctuation, etc. This was done to give them a different perspective and help us productively discuss the processes that make a good client and agency relationship.
The whole idea of the presentation was to learn to take a few steps back and recognize the marketing efforts created on their behalf are truly a team effort. Having an understanding that mistakes happen, to work through challenges constructively, and respect the efforts an agency undertakes to try and help clients are just a few of the points of instruction. It was also reinforced that the agency must have accountability and the client should not settle for sub par work.
The agenda for the presentation included role playing, the importance of creative briefs, interacting with the agency, discussion on what makes a good campaign, feedback to the agency, agency types and stories on nightmare clients. The feedback I received during the presentation helped me understand some of the challenges our clients may go through while working with us. This made the presentation as valuable to me as I hope it was to them.
The two main points of the presentation were the same points we like to remind our clients to apply to their marketing roles; 1. Be involved in the process, 2. It’s not all about you. To learn more about the presentations we make as an agency, or our “it’s not all about you” approach, go to our website at www.glintadv.com, or give me a call, Craig Lloyd, principal of Glint, at 817.616.0320.
