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October 29, 2002 This Measurement Life Martha and Bob Do the Agency Shuffle When last seen, a triumphant Marketing Martha had just convinced her new bosses that her team was the better team to lead the organization’s future marketing efforts. Her first assignment: Figure out which of the dozen or so agencies currently working for the combined organizations should be kept and which should be terminated. Naturally, she took the problem home to her husband, Bottom-line Bob. “Here’s the problem,” she said, leaning back after a truly smashing dinner that Bob had whipped up from some leftovers and pasta, liberally influenced (as he hoped Martha would be) with a warm and assertive New Zealand Merlot. “I really like the guys from Australia. They’ve got great creativity and positive energy. The four US agencies, on the other hand, range from the sublime to the downright silly. Can you imagine... the account VP for one was the former marketing VP’s wife! There are two agencies in England, one incredibly creative, one totally British button-down Oxford type. There are three on the Continent, in Germany, France, and Amsterdam. Never mind the guys from Bahrain and Turkey and Japan! The CFO is pressuring me to hire only one worldwide agency—like Weber or Hill & Knowlton—so we can have one consolidated billing process, but I don’t think this will net the best talent in each region. I want someone who really knows the local market,” Martha explained, feeling totally overwhelmed. Bob knew by now that if this didn’t get solved over dinner, Martha would spend the night doing a remarkably accurate interpretation of a human egg beater and he would be lucky to sleep at all, never mind fulfill any of the more romantic fantasies he’d been harboring since dessert. He took a long sip of wine before he answered. “First of all, you need a clear statement of criteria for success. Then you need to see who can realistically meet those criteria. Give each agency a standard questionnaire and see how they respond. If you still can’t decide, give them all an assignment and see how they handle it,” Bob suggested. “Be careful to document all your responses,” he warned. “Oh, you’re always so damn logical. What about the relationships, the gut feeling, the chemistry that we need to make all this work,” Martha grumbled. “Isn’t it the results that count in the end? You want them to get your messages out there, not be your best friend,” Bob responded, trying hard to pacify his wife and totally failing. “Yes, but if I hate dealing with them, it’s no fun at all.” Martha whined. “Presumably, if there’s no chemistry and you hate dealing with them, the relationship won’t last long anyway. So how about a little survey to see if it’s going to work,” Bob gently suggested. Martha realized she was being totally irrational and gave in. “Okay, I’ll try it your way,” realizing that it was this very logic that had attracted her to him in the first place. Together they came up with a balance of logical and illogical criteria. Bob’s contribution was of course concrete: “What methods will you use to measure your success? Will you use an outside firm, or in-house personnel. How will you report on progress? Be specific as to software tools, timing and cost structure.” Martha’s were more open-ended: “How would you celebrate our success at the end of the year: “a) Champagne and Margaritas for all, b) Give everyone a week’s vacation, c) Get to work on next year’s plan.” They developed questions on how the agencies would handle a crisis, where they thought employees fit in the overall communications scheme, as well as staffing questions, e.g., “What is the background and training of people who will work on the account?” By the time they had exhausted all of their combined inquisitorial capabilities, they were exhausted and had neither energy nor inclination to toss and turn. In the morning, Martha cleaned up the questionnaire and called each agency in to discuss it. She gave them eachone week to formulate a response. At the end of the week, she eliminated the agencies that had failed to return the questionnaire, as well as those that had supplied incomplete responses. She called in the remaining eight. Far and away the best response came from the Bahrain agency that had actually conducted research and based its response and recommendations entirely on data collected within Martha’s region. The Aussies backed up their creative with secondary research as well. She managed to narrow the field to six by simply eliminating those that didn’t include adequate measurement programs, used internal staff to evaluate the media, or used ad value as a measure of success. She met with each one again and announced that they would now be in a probationary period. Depending on their results in the next six months, she would decide who would remain as agency of record. Results should include: “Share of exposure achieved, share of recommendations, and percent of coverage communicating key messages, percent of coverage appearing in top-tier media, share of quotes and share of leadership positioning.” While many of the agency staff grumbled a little at the uncertain outcome of the effort, most welcomed the clear directions that they’d been given. And, not surprisingly, communication of messages and positioning was up substantially over the ensuing half a year. As Bob explained with a self-satisfied grin, “See? You become what you measure. And the more clear your objectives, the more likely you are to achieve them.” “Okay, Mr. Smarty Pants, now what? They’ve all improved the results, they’re all performing as expected, and my boss still wants to cut the number of agencies down to three,” Martha snapped back. “Ah, well, can we deal with that one in the morning?” Bob pleaded, putting on his most adorable pout. Martha was about to continue with her rant, but taking one look at Bob, relented and accompanied him to bed. Tune
in next time to find out whether Martha decides to keep all the winners,
or winnows the pack down to the final three.
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