Many advertisers are looking for the very best advertising agency for their brand. But what constitutes a premier advertising agency? And how do you go about identifying and selecting the very best advertising agency for the brand or organization?

 

Probably the most obvious answer is that the very best agency is the one which enjoys the highest profile in the industry. But what does this mean? Is it the one which wins probably the most advertising awards? Or the one with the most effectiveness awards? Or the one winning probably the most business?

 

The solution is that the very best media buying for almost any advertiser depends on what criteria you chose. And the option of criteria depends upon the strategic requirements the brand or organization has of the agency.

 

This seems obvious, but it's a consideration that is often overlooked in the rush often observed in the act of selecting the advertising agency to behave like a panacea to poorly performing advertising and marketing plans.

 

We've seen marketers select an agency based on industry reputation and profile alone. While this may resemble it is a good starting place, it often doesn't deliver the promised results due to a misalignment of the agency to the strategic needs of the advertiser.

 

The reason is obvious when you look at how the industry defines a premier advertising agency compared to how you may define a top-performing agency contrary to the strategic requirements.

 

When you look at how agencies build their reputations it's usually through the trade publications who report in the marketplace place. The stories the trade-press report on are: business wins and losses, new campaign launches, creative awards, effectiveness awards and senior appointments.

 

Of the topics, probably the most insightful are the senior appointments as all the other topics are usually influenced by the quality and depth of the partnership involving the agency and the advertiser.

 

The big mistake some advertisers make is appointing an advertising agency with a reputation for creating outstanding work, simply to be disappointed that their relationship with exactly the same agency produces significantly less than expected results. The reason is invariably because of the advertiser and the direction they engage with this agency.

 

As opposed to selecting agencies based on the reputation, it's more vital that you carefully define what attributes could be required by your brand or organization that will categorise advertising agency performance.

 

That is more than functional discriminators such as for instance expertise, capabilities, client experience, size, resources and the like. It is also the more intangible discriminators like culture, trust, philosophy, attitude and chemistry.

 

Needless to say, the industry will continue to define the very best advertising agency contrary to the accepted criteria that make compelling reading in the trade publications. But it's more critical that at best this really is a kick off point in the selection of an agency and not the only real criteria in the selection of the right agency.