Client Newsletters

Client Search News - October 15, 2003

This CLIENT SEARCH NEWS is for individuals registered @ agencyfinder.com. Forward to those in your company or others elsewhere involved in the advertising or public relations agency selection or review process.

CONTENTS: 

1. Procurement: Brad Johnson Says "Get Used To It"
2. Does Anyone Notice When They Leave?
3. Clients Still Sit in Judgment

PROCUREMENT: BRAD JOHNSON SAYS "GET USED TO IT."

In case you missed it, make a point to read Bradley Johnson's piece entitled "Procurement: Get used to it" starting on C1 in the Sept. 29th edition of AdAge Magazine. Brad attended the AAAA New Business Summit back in June and heard some early stirrings suggesting client-side Procurement (aka purchasing, sourcing, etc.) was looking hard and strong at client/agency relationships.

Brad does a nice job arguing the positives and compliments what we introduced in our Special Executive Report of July 7th. You may want to review that as well at:

When there's money on the table, Procurement will be there!

DOES ANYONE NOTICE WHEN THEY LEAVE?

The other day a client asked if anyone keeps track or attempts to count the number of agencies that go out of business. If our experience is any benchmark, other than the bigger shops that get industry press, I'd say no. Most communication is instant and via the Internet these days, so when someone leaves or a shop shuts down, many e-mails simply go off into space. I'm surprised how many web sites are still "up and running", yet phone and fax are disconnected, and "411 information" has no listing whatsoever. Best attempt at measurement might be to run "pre" and "post" counts using ADWEEK or Redbook directories.

This year (2003), when so much has been said about a recovering economy, we've seen mergers and closings at a rate we've not seen since we began. Specialists who make it their business to gauge the "mood" of businesses also speculate that prevailing attitudes, behaviors and account payable delinquencies suggest many agencies hung in there as long as they