Marketers want creative agencies to be more accountable and adopt payment-by-results remuneration packages.
Russell Tate, STW’s group executive chairman, told delegates to the Marketing Communications Summit this week that his clients were increasingly demanding that his agencies share both the risk and the benefit of campaigns they undertake.
He said: “You need to take risk to get the upside.” And warned that such a system would make agencies choosier about who they work for.
“You need to pick your product. If you have world-class products, you’re going to get more kicks, than kicks in the groin,” he said.
Although many creative agencies now include an element of performance-based reward, M&C Saatchi CEO Simon Corah said there was still a long journey towards genuine accountability.
He said: “On the whole, when we left the commission system one of the things we needed to change was becoming better at delivering on the growth, but we have to expect to take
more risk, because the rewards will be greater,” he said
For more news from the Global Business Forum’s Marketing and Communications Summit, see this week’s B&T (in stores December 8).
