How To Select And Advertising Agency

5 Pages 1237 Words

How to Select an Advertising Agency:
A Structured Approach



Below, I suggest a structured procedure for evaluating an advertising proposal or “pitch.” If you would like to see an example of the use of this procedure, see Armstrong (1996). To apply this procedure, use the Proposal Evaluation Sheet, available on the Advertising Principles homepage. This application relates to a bidding of the Subaru account.

Ideal Selection Criteria: What the Clients Should Get

I suggest an examination of 11 criteria when selecting an agency. To determine whether my list is comprehensive, I reviewed it with five experts. In all, they represent over 120 years of experience in advertising. One of these expert is currently a director of a large New York advertising agency, one had been the head of advertising research for a large consumer products company, one is the founder and head of a moderate-sized Philadelphia agency, and two are marketing professors who have worked for ad agencies. I asked them what is missing from the list and how would they weight these factors in the evaluation of an agency.

Interestingly, the experts did not think anything was missing from the list. Also interesting was that they thought that each of the elements was of some importance. The average weightings across the five experts are provided in parentheses.

1. Planning techniques: Do they know how to plan a campaign effectively? For example, do they provide an effective time-line for developing a campaign? Do they consider alternative strategies? Do they have contingency plans? Did they plan this meeting effectively? Much evidence exists that formal planning techniques will improve the performance of an organization. Are they aware of this research and of the recommended procedures? ( 9%)

2. Objectives: Do they focus on your primary objectives? Do they know how to assess the effectiveness of advertising so as to be able to determine whether the advert...