Loyalty in Agency-Client Relations: The Impact of the Organizational Context

Nicholas H. Sanders and Prof Paul Michell

While the reasons for break-ups in agency-client relationships tend to be specific, the reasons for loyal relations are more general.

Loyalty in Agency-Client Relations: the Impact of the Organizational Context

Nicholas H Sanders and Paul Michell

This study seeks to establish, in a services setting, why a small minority of clients maintain loyal relationships over an extended time period with their service providers (advertising agencies) in the context of the 'disloyalty' portrayed by the great majority of such clients. On average, UK advertisers change advertising agencies once every four and a half years (Michell, 1983, 1990); over the 15-year period 1976-1991 only 3% of UK advertising accounts were maintained with the original agencies, typically high-profile major accounts since...

WARC subscribers can sign in to keep reading

Not a subscriber?

Schedule your live demo with our team today

WARC helps you to plan, create and deliver more effective marketing

  • Prove your case and back-up your idea

  • Get expert guidance on strategic challenges

  • Tackle current and emerging marketing themes

We’re long-term subscribers to WARC and it’s a tool we use extensively. We use it to source case studies and best practice for the purposes of internal training, as well as for putting persuasive cases to clients. In compiling a recent case for long-term, sustained investment in brand, we were able to support key marketing principles with numerous case studies sourced from WARC. It helped bring what could have been a relatively dry deck to life with recognisable brand successes from across a broad number of categories. It’s incredibly efficient to have such a wealth of insight in one place.

Insights Team
Bray Leino

You’re in good company

We work with 80% of Forbes' most valuable brands* and 80% of the world's top top-of-the-class agencies.

* Top 10 brands