Poll Position: Forget the heavy metal it's the year of the relationship
Published: Feb 27, 2009
Regional - 2009 will be the year agencies concentrate on relationships and keeping their businesses running not their trophy cabinets full, according to a poll of senior marketers and agency professionals run by marketing-interactive.com over the past week.
To the Snap Poll question "Given the state of the world economy what do you think agencies should be most focused on right now?" a whopping 68% of the 370 participants answered "client relationships", while a further 30% answered "cash flow".
Only 2% of all participants said creative awards and creative rankings were their top priority, or should be any agency's top priority, during the downturn.
We anticipate expensive awards programs will be about as popular as a bailed out banker's bonus this year and anticipate a significant drop in numbers of entries as awards programs around the region this year are just about to start asking agencies to fork over large entry fees to be considered for accolades - stay tuned to your in-box.
Based on the survey results even if this isn't what agencies are thinking, it is definitely what their clients are thinking.
With this in mind we present our new poll and the second part of our double-barreled award poll which continues this week and where we ask you our readers how you think awards are really won.
This week's question (you'll find the poll under out twitter panel)
How are creative and effectiveness awards really judged?
a) How well you package the entry
b) How much money you spend on exorbitant entry fees
c) How effective and talented the agency actually is.
Have your say now.
i agree. it is the year of the relationship--not only between agencies and clients but also between clients and their customers.
this year, we're focusing on working with our clients (and client prospects) on how to get the most out of their existing customer base using digital channels like email and social media as well as consumer insight vehicles such as online surveys and more meaningful analysis of web analytics.
this is a sure-fire recession buster since we all know that it's far cheaper and easier to sell more stuff to existing customers than to acquire new ones.
jeff zweig
chief guru, web guru asia
http://www.webguruasia.com
P.S. the really good news is that virtually of this type of work can be done at low cost, which means even higher ROI for clients.
It was a 3 choice snap poll, so yes you can't really use this as reflective of the situation as a whole. The 2% who actually dared vote for option 3 must have just come back from a 6 months holiday in some remote part of the world.