Adweek Magazine Feature
Originally printed in Adweek, August 4, 1997 and on Adweek Online, August 4-10, 1997. Reprinted by permission.Online Agency Search Tool Launched
By Teresa Andreoli
NEW YORK-A new business/search consultant is launching a Web site designed to match agencies with potential clients.
Chuck Meyst, president of Business Partnering International of Richmond, Va., who has operated his own advertising consultancy for seven years, today will unveil Agencyfinder.com.
Clients with ad budgets of more than $1 million can register anonymously on the site, input their needs, and find agencies that meet the criteria, Meyst said. Examples of requirement categories are size, location and category experience.
Advertisers can access the site at no cost, but agencies that wish to be listed must be certified by BPI and pay a onetime sign up fee of $2,500 and annual fees beginning at $3,000.
Meyst said agencies of all sizes have signed up. Sources said BPI intends to have the top 2,000 shops on board by the end of the year.
Meyst added that an advantage of the service is that it "eliminates the potential for human partiality. It makes clients think with precision ... about what they want."
Clients and agencies had mixed reactions to the service.
"If we were looking for an agency it would definitely be something we would log onto," said a representative of DowBrands in Indianapolis.
Small and midsize agencies thought it would potentially level the playing field with larger agencies.
Several sources had reservations about sensitive information being viewed by the wrong parties. One thought it might attract clients which were "too lazy to read the trades or too cheap to hire a consultant."
Hasan Ramusevic, vice president of client services at the Advertising Agency Register here, said he thought the site would make a good research tool, but questioned the anonymity factor: "Most agencies want to know what the client is like, and try to match what it is looking for." AAR is considering launching its own electronic database of agencies.
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