With the news today that Porsche has put its $25 million account in review I am once again reminded of how dumb this whole review process is. Not that I’m suggesting we go back to the days when it was against IPA rules for members to pitch each others accounts. Until KMP hit that one on the head and went after everything in site, doing some bloody good work in the process… Anyone long enough in the tooth to remember the wonderful “You can take a White Horse anywhere” campaign?
Anyway, three things amuse me about account reviews. First: More and more clients are using “Agency Search Consultants.” To me this is a sad reflection on the abilities of the clients marketing and advertising people. Surely they keep up with what’s going on in their business, and if one of their functions is to monitor which agencies are doing the most effective work, why do they need a third party to tell them that?
Second: The incumbent nearly always re-pitches for the account (usually at great expense) even though incumbents rarely hold on to the business.
Thirdly: The client always says this is not a reflection on the current agency or the quality of its work. The Porsche client even had the nerve to say the review was simply “process driven!” Well, whatever that means, I still have to ask the obvious question… Then why are you having a review?
George Parker
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Member since: 03 Jun 2008
Last login: 17 Nov 2009
Total Posts: 831
