Collaboration: Get in sync
Avi Dan
It's time for marketing, procurement, and agencies to build a more harmonious relationship
AGENCIES HAVE LONG ARGUED that procurement executives focus excessively on cutting agency fees and not on what they should be doing — improving efficiency and benchmarking performance. Indeed, in recent years, operating margins for agencies working for the top 100 advertisers have shrunk to 10.6 percent, from 12.5 percent.
Agencies contend that cutting fees limits the quality of talent they hire and their ability to train them properly. The squeeze in remuneration, they say, also impairs an agency's ability to...