Ad Week 2016 highlights the need for integrated agencies

With our experience both in-house and agency side, we think that we have a good idea of the problems that exist in client-agency relationships. But that doesn’t mean we weren’t listening closely to, ‘The Uncomfortable Truth about Marketing’ at Ad Week Europe, a talk in which brands spoke out about their pet peeves when working with agencies.

Segregated agencies

One speaker that particularly caught our attention was Mark Given, Head of Brand at Sainsbury’s. What really annoys him about working with agencies is, “the silos that are created in an ever-fragmented agency relationship”. He argued that in a world where customers expect a consistent omni-channel experience, it is increasingly difficult to manage the multiple agencies needed to cover all channels. In his experience, although agencies may promise to work well with each other in their pitch, this is not the case once they win the contract.

We get it

We’ve been in a similar situation to Mark – working in a big corporate company with a multi-channel presence. It’s not easy to juggle different agencies for social media, SEO, the website, design…the list goes on. That’s why Jodie and I set up The Marketing Pod; we knew that interacting with one integrated agency would make our clients’ lives so much easier.

Integrated agencies give brands that uniform tone of voice that is crucial for a good customer experience. This is something we’ve found is just not possible when accounts are shared among multiple agencies – no matter how clear your brand guidelines are, each agency will have a slightly different take on them. Dealing with a single agency is far more convenient for the in-house marketing team, as it means that there’s a single point of contact for marketing activities across all media. It also means that brands don’t have to waste valuable time mediating between competing agencies with conflicting ideas.

It’s what we do

As an integrated agency ourselves, we offer our clients a number of services and we can support brands across a wide range of channels. If you think an integrated approach could benefit your brand, get in touch!