Intermediaries should be the providers of valuable business insights and guidance, even while some may think ‘marital-guidance type mediators’ or ‘comparison shopping merchants’ when they hear the term.
In the advertising and marketing eco-system, intermediaries play a role that can actually be seen and valued in the work that their marketing clients produce.
When we seek out a perfect-fit relationship between a marketer and an agency the results are visible from the first campaign. Intermediaries in our business have to get to know the intricacies of our client’s operations, as well as those who could best serve them.
Even though the pandemic saw an understandable drop off in pitches, the IAS has noted a huge increase since April. It makes perfect sense that marketers did not want to change agencies amid the Covid turbulence,” McDowell says. “However, even in the absence of pitches, our relationships with clients shifted fairly sturdily into other key operational areas.
Opinion plus research speaks volumes
Webinars hosted or attended by the IAS, and an ongoing focus on client communications throughout lockdown is the agent of this change, and our role has broadened into areas like onboarding during agency handovers and contractual and financial due diligence.
In all, clients have placed greater reliance on our knowledge of the industry and our engagement with industry personnel, from CMOs to creative teams.
When called on to play an advisory role, the IAS is also asked to offer opinion alongside facts. Opinion is valuable to clients, especially as they know that through the shareholder relationship the IAS has with SCOPEN and AGENCY SCOPE our opinions are underpinned by verifiable data.
As intermediaries, the value we provide lies in the robustness of our research and opinion gleaned from engagement throughout the industry. For us to make an impact on decision making that proves valuable to all stakeholders, we must be able to present a holistic view and not just a snapshot.
Johanna McDowell is CEO of IAS and Partner in SCOPEN South Africa and UK.
