Client guide for multiple agencies

The IPA is aiming to improve client/agency relationships with the launch of a new guide, entitled “Agencies working better together”, that explains how clients can manage multiple communications agencies to achieve better results.
It follows the publication of a joint industry guide – Briefing an Agency – for which client and agency trade bodies (MAA, PRCA and IPA led by advertiser body ISBA) joined forces to help improve client/agency briefings across all channels.
“Agencies working better together” contains advice on the pros and cons of different roster models and suggests top tips on how best to work with communications agencies to create an environment where the client gets the best value and best work out of its agency relationships.
Michael Rebelo, IPA client services group and managing director of Saatchi & Saatchi London, said: “Marketing clients are confronted by a complex range of expert communications agencies, each with its own demands and ways of working and each with its own strongly-held opinions about the other agencies in town.
“The question here is not whether to integrate marketing communications, but how to integrate them, and so the issue of how to encourage different agencies to work together collaboratively is what this guide attempts to help answer.”
Former IPA President and vice chairman of Ogilvy Group UK Rory Sutherland said: “Different media have different jobs to do. Different disciplines may need to perform individual roles which they alone can play. Complementarity may matter more than consistency.”