Are we stuck in 20-year-old thinking around formal agency evaluation programs?
As long as I can remember, the good old annual evaluation (and sometimes mid-year) has been a tribal ritual conducted by most major advertisers.
But conducting evaluations across all critical agency relationships at the same time can cause a massive headache.
First, identifying, nominating, collecting, entering the relationships and participants, then the pain of fielding all those surveys simultaneously, the crunch of analyzing everything in a very tight window, and finally scheduling and running endless meetings and de-brief sessions… ALL AT THE SAME TIME!
Maybe it’s worth looking at some alternatives?
Here are some ideas…
Spread Your Annual Evaluation
Spread your annual agency evaluation out across a couple of months. Do each agency (or type of agency) separately so you can manage the process end to end in a more manageable way. For example, do evaluations for your two most important agencies (or holding companies) separately. Manage Digital in October, Creative in November, and Media in December.
Lighter Evaluations Aligned to QBRs
Use a pulse check methodology where you ask a few key questions ahead of the QBR. You already have the meeting locked in, so this is one useful extra data point for discussion. And you can alternate question sets so you get fresh insights each quarter.
Engagement-Based Evaluations
Implement an engagement-based process where you conduct a smaller, focused evaluation at the end of each major body of work — a campaign, production, event, or pitch. Do these in a far more compressed timeline: nominate a handful of key stakeholders at the client and agency, have the survey open for a few days, then meet and discuss the results the next week so it’s fresh in everyone’s mind.
Don’t Stop What’s Working
I do want to make clear that I am a massive proponent of formal agency evaluations. So if the current status quo is working for you, whatever you do, don’t stop. As an idea, you could choose to supplement your regular cadence with a few engagement-based evaluations to test the water on how those run.
I hope these ideas spark your thinking and give you an opportunity to freshen up your current agency evaluation processes.