Study: Only 66% of Chinese marketers happy with agency partners

The majority of Chinese marketers hope to work with an ecosystem of specialised agencies as they rely on specialist partners to help generate revenue. On average, Chinese brands work with 26 partner agencies, 30% higher than the global average as they understand that the knowledge of local complexities and nuances are crucial to success. Moreover, only two-thirds of Chinese marketers are happy to work with their agency partners.

According to the ninth wave of R3 and Scopen’s Agency Scope Study, 81.7% of China’s marketers preferred working with an ecosystem of specialised agencies, with only 15.6% currently working with a single agency model. This preference for specialist partners was attributed to the importance of online platforms in revenue generation, with 68.8% of China marketers naming eCommerce as a key scope of their work and essential to sales conversion. In addition to shopping platforms including Taobao, TMall, and JD.com, social CRM and online-video platforms were also ranked high in importance.

The report explained that Chinese marketers required digital efficiency from their agencies.

“This means knowing what works on certain platforms, and how to do it in a cost-efficient manner. Marketers want tactically driven results," said Cesar Vacchiano, founding partner and CEO of Scopen.

The demand for specialist agencies also led to the higher number of agencies that Chinese marketers need to work with. The study unveiled that a Chinese brand worked with 26 agencies on average, 30% over the global average. 35.5% of those agencies were likely to be digital platforms, while 15.2% worked in the area of field marketing such as CRM, promotion, activation and events.

Sabrina Li, managing director of R3 China, said, "Marketers are becoming more pragmatic as China’s digital marketing landscape becomes increasingly saturated. Innovation might be a good tactic to attract the attention of marketers. To win business, agencies need the capability in data science and have the tools and content expertise to help brands maximise their investments on digital platforms."

The study also examined the relationship between Chinese marketers and agencies and found that 66.2% of marketers were satisfied with their current agency partnerships, lower than the global average of 77.1%. More Chinese marketers (a 5.3% increase from the previous Agency Scope study in 2020) said they were considering changing their integrated marketing communications agency, with local agencies facing a higher likelihood of reviews than multinationals.

When it comes to creative agency performance, Leo Burnett, Ogilvy and BBH were ranked in the top three for the market. The study explained that the need for dependable teams and reliable ways of working meant that multinationals were more in favour when Chinese marketers needed to choose integrated marketing partners.