We are the direct marketing agency working with the ATL agency on a joint client. (We do the DM and digital). What is obvious is that we have a really difficult relationship with them. We often get emails with sentiments like “We’re the lead agency and these are our comments on your concepts”. It is making it difficult for my team. Any thoughts?
This is not an uncommon situation. Historically, ATL agencies have been the lead agency, others have felt the poor cousin in the client relationship and the client has propagated this. Yet with the need to engage customers different ways, all bets are off as to how to structure a number of agencies to deliver this for a client. Nevertheless, there are still some anachronistic attitudes between agencies. I find that they can often be promoted by the junior members of the team and these can be the most overt, annoying attitudes. Also the fact that you are the digital agency (not sure what this covers) will cause predatory actions by the ATL agency unless checked by the client.
As ever, I would suggest a 3-pronged approach. (well, come on – 3 things are easy to remember than 4!):
1) The one party who can change the dynamic in your relationship most with the other agency is the client. I appreciate that it may not be just one client contact we are talking about. However if you can influence that person/the relevant people, then you will make the greatest change. The senior member on your team needs to see whether the client is sympathetic to helping - by establishing some operating groundrules which will change the status quo. For example the overall campaign brief – do you feed into this? And does the other agency need to take on board your comments? If you can influence the brief you have a better chance of agreeing common ground (and the differences per media) before you ever start any creative.
It may be you have some radical groundwork to do before the client will help you for they see you in a too traditional way. What can you do to show your thinking is worthy of seat at the table? Added-value thought pieces? Name-checking case studies in your field which make the clients and other agencies think about approaching the customer differently? Suggesting taking the lead where your discipline is the dominant one? If the other agency sees the client responding to this differently , they may see you in a different light as well.
2) In addition, your account lead needs to sit with the ATL agency lead and have a one-to-one session which is rooted in an honesty about the perceptions on your side. Recently this has worked with an account I was involved in – particularly as we both knew that the client wanted us to sort out a better collaborative style. Beforehand your team should sit down with her/him and provide him not only with examples but with solutions as to how it can work better. Can you rework the process to work better together? Who are the worst proponents of this snobbish attitude? How can you avoid any territory disputes? (Better to bring this all out then keep it buried.) And to your point, how should feedback on creative concepts be handled?
3) Often when you feel the “poor cousin”, then it is a self-fulfilling prophesy where the “chip on your shoulder” grows bigger with every encounter. How can you, yourselves, break out of this perceptual cycle with the agency? How can you take the lead without making it a territory thing? Invite the team around for a social session (maybe with the client to ensure attendance), create a presentation around a particular area which they would benefit from, make their life easier (eg go to their offices for meetings for a while). Here the point is that you might be creating the situation by your actions – what can you do to change their perceptions?
Hope this helps. A video doing the rounds currently (no doubt promoted by all those “poor cousins”) may be some consolation. More importantly, your team needs to make sure it that its thinking is not from the Stone Age too:
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