Agencies need skin in the game, says Coke

The brand-agency relationship needs to be rethought in several ways, according to a leading Coca-Cola executive.

A brand’s agency partners should be willing to take risks, be more conscious of waste and have skin in the game, according to Islam ElDessouky, Head of Integrated Marketing Communications at Coca-Cola Middle East.

He was responding to a question about Coke’s relationship with its agencies, posed at an Edelman Brand Breakfast during the Dubai Lynx festival (Dubai, March 2018).

ElDessouky promoted the sense of partnership that should exist between an advertiser and its agency. “It can’t be a master and slave relationship,” he said. “It should be one where you see both success and failure, where the partnerships become...

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