Wasting time managing agency relationships is a major bugbear for clients according to a cross-industry reputation report.

Collaboration and integration is “critical” and should be an area of priority for agencies the new Commuications Council, Media Federation of Australia and AANA study revealed.

An improvement in communication between creative and media agencies is “of critical importance” with cooperation between digital agencies with both creative and media coming second.

A recent Yes, No, Maybe in B&T Magazine debating the same topic pulled a mixed bag of responses.

Clients need to have a structured approach to agency management, according to TrinityP3’s managing director Darren Woolley.

He believes marketers only give agency management the attention it deserves when the relationships are failing: “and then gallons of oil are poured onto the squeaky wheel”.

Melbourne Business School’s associate professor of marketing, Mark Ritson, said marketers do spend too much focused on agency relationships and says the time spent could be shortened if clients did their research first and learn to brief properly.

“Finally, don’t become friends with your agency partners and go for dinner with them,” he said.

“Be respectful of their efforts but run them very hard and keep asking them to come back again and again until you are happy.”

Meanwhile, the new Industry Reputation Study found a number of discrepancies between what clients view as the most important and what agencies believe to be priorities. See below:

When it comes to the general population’s view of the advertising and marketing industries the disciplines rank ahead of insurance, telecommunications, banking and tobacco.

But they fall behind mining and health insurance to take ninth place.

According to one of the study’s respondents from a creative agency: “The public have a mistaken belief we are spin merchants, liars and a tool of corporate power”.

The Industry Reputation Study is the first major industry issue in fifteen years to be addressed by the MFA, Communications Council and The Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA). 

The Comms Council CEO Margaret Zabel (pictured) and MFA chief executive Sophie Madden jointly said: “As your industry bodies, it is a priority for us to promote the value of agencies and to offer insights and guidance to help raise the professionalism and profitability of agencies.  Our industry reputation is essential not only to our survival but critical to building trust and confidence with our clients (and broader stakeholders) which in turn has a direct and profound effect on our bottom line.”