Agency Selection – Insights

While selecting the right agency may appear to be simple, there are a wide range of complex considerations that must be accounted for including interpersonal chemistry, capabilities, communication, collaboration and more. While you may believe there is a standard way to find the perfect agency, the truth is that belief could be your first problem.

Our agency selection approach is based on more than two decades of assisting hundreds of organizations of all sizes and across many industry categories to find that right agency. We work with our clients across every stage of the pitch journey, from pre-pitch rationale to selection and beyond. You can explore more of what we do here:

You can find more information on agency search and selection management here or explore more details and insights below. We have also published the pitch consultants’ definitive guide to agency selection which you can download and read at your leisure.

Why the Media Pitch trading exercise template needs to go

Why the Media Pitch trading exercise template needs to go

The MFA and AANA pitching guidelines advocate using a trading exercise template. A glorified Excel for completion by agencies asking ...
Overcoming Obstacles to Agency Value-Based Pricing Fees

Overcoming Obstacles to Agency Value-Based Pricing Fees

The past 18 months or so have seen more advertisers and agencies looking to move away from “traditional” FTE/resource/cost-recovery-based pricing ...
Why Value Trumps Cost in Agency Remuneration Fees

Why Value Trumps Cost in Agency Remuneration Fees

My grandfather was a frugal man, borne no doubt from living through the Great Depression, then going to war and ...
100 consideration for marketers to avoid poor pitch performance

100 consideration for marketers to avoid poor pitch performance

Anyone can run a pitch to select a new advertising agency. Or a new media agency. Or a new digital ...
Why we practice radical candor in providing pitch feedback

Why we practice radical candor in providing pitch feedback

One of the great frustrations for agencies for agencies, beyond coming second is the lack of constructive feedback during and ...
When it comes to paying your agencies, you need to follow the money.

When it comes to paying your agencies, you need to follow the money.

Marketing teams can be broadly divided into two groups. There are some who think their agency is paid too much ...
Agency Search: the chemistry process and ten key questions to ask

Agency Search: the chemistry process and ten key questions to ask

TrinityP3 UK is a founder signatory of the Pitch Positive Pledge launched jointly by the IPA and ISBA in May ...
When is an agency pitch, not an agency pitch?

When is an agency pitch, not an agency pitch?

Advertising is one of the most visible communication professions. And language is an important component of communication. Yet, as an ...
why-agency-pitches-should-be-a-test-drive-and-not-a-beauty-parade

Why agency pitches should be a test drive and not a beauty parade

The industry trade media regularly carry stories about the significant problems posed by the pitch process. These stories refer to ...
Brain-Rape in the Boardroom 2 – Agency Pitches and Creative IP

Brain-Rape in the Boardroom 2 – Agency Pitches and Creative IP

Part 2 – The Advertiser Recently, I wrote an article about ‘brain-rape’. It was sparked by some posts we read ...
Brain-Rape in the Boardroom 1 – Agency Pitches and Creative IP

Brain-Rape in the Boardroom 1 – Agency Pitches and Creative IP

Part 1: The Agencies Brain-rape. Anyone would think I had used this term with clickbait in mind, right? Well, it ...
‘Is pitching broken?’ is the wrong question

‘Is pitching broken?’ is the wrong question

Pitching is currently flawed, and it doesn't appear to be improving. The industry should focus on avoiding beauty parades and ...
Your next agency pitch will cost you financially, but not as much as you think.

Your next agency pitch will cost you financially, but not as much as you think.

The practice of going to tender at the end of the agency contract period has become a habit for many ...
What’s causing all the agency reviews?

What’s causing all the agency reviews?

You are probably surprised that a pitch consultant is questioning why it is that this year we’ve already seen an ...
Advertising ideas are a dime a dozen according to this advertiser

Advertising ideas are a dime a dozen according to this advertiser

Ultimately, the value of the advertising agency process is in the intellectual properties created and in the commercial outcomes, those ...
Have you thought through your Pitch approach and what’s needed to make a more informed decision?

Have you thought through your Pitch approach and what’s needed to make a more informed decision?

At first it seems like such a simple question, but the more you delve into it and the ramifications involved, ...
The 5 biggest mistakes made by advertisers when pitching

The 5 biggest mistakes made by advertisers when pitching

This is the first of two, around the topic of ‘What are the 5 biggest mistakes made when Pitching’. The ...
Better to mess up a pitch yourself than pay someone to do it for you

Better to mess up a pitch yourself than pay someone to do it for you

Any fool can hang up a shingle and call themselves a consultant. More than 20 years ago I was one ...
Lessons for advertisers and agencies from the frontline of a remote, hands-free, online pitch

Lessons for advertisers and agencies from the frontline of a remote, hands-free, online pitch

The health and safety impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have been felt globally. No more so in marketing, media and ...
Never publicise agencies in a pitch

Three reasons you should never publicise the agencies participating in a pitch

There is always a lot of interest in live pitches. The trade media love a pitch because there will be ...
Composite_Pitch

How to survive first contact with the agency marketplace – the composite pitch

It was Helmuth von Moltke the Elder who first told us that ‘No plan survives first contact with the enemy’ ...
Why do Agency pitches take so long and does that produce a better outcome?

Why do Agency pitches take so long and does that produce a better outcome?

For marketers, the agency pitch creates a fantastic opportunity to take stock of skills and services needed from an agency ...
Top ten reasons agency pitches take too long

Top ten reasons agency pitches take too long

Lately there has been discussion that indicates the industry thinks the pitch process is too long and involved and complicated ...
Pitching game

Pitching: The problem is not the game, it is the rules.

New business is a game. There are winners and losers. And the most competitive manifestation of this game is the ...
Is it time marketers rethink agency competitive conflicts of interest?

Is it time marketers rethink agency competitive conflicts of interest?

When selecting a new agency, a major and complex issue for marketers is the concern over conflict of interest. That ...
Top 10 tips for a successful agency pitch – Infographic

Top 10 tips for a successful agency pitch – Infographic

Finding a new advertising partner is always an exciting time as a fresh start always offers the promise of increased ...
Do you remunerate or compensate your agency?

Do you remunerate or compensate your agency?

This is the second in a series of one-minute videos that address the many complex challenges facing marketing, media and ...
Time to pitch your agency or not? And when it is the only answer

Time to pitch your agency or not? And when it is the only answer

That indeed is the question many marketers ask themselves when agencies aren’t performing. Given one of our services at TrinityP3 ...
advertising agency pitches

Who should really be paying for advertising agency pitches?

The first point I have to make is “Why are you pitching any way?” But the fact is that pitching ...
Why not all agency pitch processes are equal

Why not all agency pitch processes are equal

I recently had a conversation with a CMO who had just completed an agency pitch with a pitch consultant. Not ...
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