Client Newsletters

Client Search News - October 25, 2002

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: Special Edition – AGENCY DILEMMA

Could your ad agency go out of business tomorrow? Could their owners salvage something through a sale? What, if anything, gives their business value? Why should you care?

Many agencies face a dilemma. It's a question of staying alive and staying afloat. That's particularly evident in light of this week's closures at D'Arcy, Earle Palmer Brown, the Bates Irvine office and the continuing public financial struggles at IPG. More will certainly come. We encounter DOA agency e-mail addresses each day, followed by DOA phones and faxes.

How is it that an agency of stature and historical significance like D'Arcy can be shuttered almost overnight? Why should clients be expected to shift to another agency (at the agency's direction), or that agency employees accept similar shifts. How could this happen? Is there a fix, a solution?

On just this subject, a city magazine publisher-friend spoke of his 25 staffers that produce their monthly magazine. Not only do they produce the magazine, but they also produce more than 50% of the ads - for clients that don't have agencies themselves. "If we skipped publishing next month or any month thereafter, but still did the ads, we'd be an ad agency. Conversely, ad agencies are publishers without a magazine."

That's an interesting thought. Without that magazine, it suggests an agency has no public persona, no identity, it has no claim to fame and it has little equity, little brand. Not surprising it can "go away" overnight.

When an agency closes, many suffer. Employees need to find new jobs and families are jeopardized. As a client, you lose too - finding a replacement agency is neither quick nor easy; in fact, it's costly in expense, manpower and marketing downtime. Agencies and clients alike have a vested interest in solving this problem.

This Special Edition Flash Report does not propose a solution, for one is not clearly apparent. Rather, we raise the question and ask for your input. We'll collect, assimilate, consider and share your proposed solutions. We welcome your thoughts and comments. Write me directly - it really is a matter of serious and immediate concern.

Sincerely,

Charles G. Meyst, Chairman/CEO

Business Partnering International, Ltd.
Vantage Place, 4327 Cox Road
Glen Allen, Virginia 23060 USA