How to orchestrate a more streamlined and effective (i.e., “no spec creative”) agency selection process

This article advises marketers on how to improve the agency selection process.

Where to start

For decades, the traditional approach to choosing agencies and other external marketing partners has consisted of contacting multiple agencies, who are invited to a selection process requiring them to present speculative creative work in response to an assignment brief. For decades this was the “go-to” (in fact, often the only) process for selecting an agency.

Fortunately, that’s been slowly changing over the last few years, as the flaws in the typical review process have become ever more clear. Marketers are not feeling quite so bound to the idea that spec creative need be a part of...

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