Most agency-client relationships begin with optimism and momentum yet struggle to extend beyond the three-year mark, argues Cummins & Partners CEO Ben McCallum, CEO.
Some don’t even reach that point. The first year is often defined by energy and ambition. By year two, reality sets in. By year three, conversations about change, formal or informal, begin to surface.
This isn’t a failure of capability. It’s a failure of structure, incentives and expectation.
The predictable cycle
Year one is shaped by chemistry.
The work feels fresh, the team is motivated and there is alignment around potential rather than proof. Progress is measured as much by momentum as by outcomes.
Year two introduces complexity.
Budgets tighten, early wins are absorbed into expectations and market conditions shift. What once felt intuitive becomes operational. The relationship moves from possibility to accountability.
Year three is the reckoning.
A new CMO arrives, if not earlier in the partnership, and procurement demands a review. Short-term results are compared to long-term ambition, and short-term always wins in a spreadsheet.
This cycle has become so normalised that failure is almost built in. We design relationships as if they are disposable, then act surprised when they don’t last.
Continuity has become the exception
The average tenure of a CMO in Australia sits at 2-3 years, the same length as the average agency relationship. That overlap is not a coincidence.
Every leadership change resets priorities, agencies and narratives. Long-term brand building rarely survives the handover. Agencies are judged not on whether they are right, but whether they are new.
When continuity disappears, so does institutional memory, and with it, effectiveness.
Procurement has quietly replaced partnership
Procurement plays a necessary role, but when cost control becomes the primary lens through which agency value is measured, relationships become transactional by default. Agencies are pressured to promise more for less. Clients expect agility without resourcing it and trust erodes long before performance does. Once an agency becomes interchangeable, the relationship is already over.
The tension between short-term metrics and long-term growth
The modern obsession with immediate performance has fundamentally changed how agencies are evaluated.
Brand impact builds over time, but agencies are increasingly judged on short-term results, even in categories where the payoff takes much longer to materialise.
When success is defined too narrowly, disappointment becomes almost inevitable.
Why some partnerships survive
The rare relationships that extend beyond year three, or five, or ten, share a few common traits.
They invest in trust before it is tested. They acknowledge that cycles exist and avoid mistaking turbulence for failure and they resist the urge to reset simply because change feels decisive.
Most importantly, they understand that longevity itself is a competitive advantage.
Deep category knowledge, shared language and institutional memory compound over time. When disruption hits, and it always does, long-standing partners move faster, not slower.
Where we can be better
Advertising doesn’t need fewer pitches. It needs fewer premature breakups.
Agencies shouldn’t be reinventing themselves every 2 years to appear more attractive, it’s about evolution and growing together without losing the knowledge and capability that already exists.
If we want better work, stronger brands and more resilient businesses, we have to stop treating three years as the natural end point.
It shouldn’t be the finish line.
It should be the foundation.
