What’s required from an agency?
The scope of works or scope of services – evolves over time. Often this is due to circumstance, to market or commercial developments. The commercial agreement you hold with your agency often requires review to ensure that it remains competitive and sustainable.
Using 20+ years of experience, with financial consultants specializing in agency agreements, we offer a range of marketing services that deliver you confidence in your commercial arrangement with your agency, along with clear improvement recommendations where necessary, for use in negotiation.
Agency fee benchmarking
We conduct in-depth reviews of current agency remuneration and resourcing, using proprietary industry fee benchmarking data across hundreds of data-points, to identify challenges or opportunities. Everything from major resourcing to incidental unit cost items are covered. And we can negotiate on your behalf with your agency.
Scope of work modelling
Often in an agency agreement, the fee arrangement does not keep up with the changing nature of your required scope. This can lead to cost blow-outs from agencies charging higher ‘out of scope’ fees; or, reduction in agency resourcing due to financial unsustainability. Using your inputs, we develop a bespoke agency scope of works or scope of services that can be used in pitching or development of a new remuneration model.
Agency fee modelling
There are many potential remuneration models; retained, project based, hybrid, performance based. We assess your current model and situation and build a bespoke model for you, capable of significantly improving value. And we can negotiate on your behalf with your agency.
Contractual assessment
As the industry changes, your agency contract needs to evolve, for your own protection and that of your agency. We assess your current document and advise your legal team on recommended amendments, clause inclusions or removal.
In-Housing advisory
In housing of agency services is becoming more common, but often, it’s difficult to know where to start. We provide assessment of what’s possible for you and advice on how to plan and execute a move to in-housed services.
Contact us to find out more about our services, or to discuss a tailored project in one or more of these areas.
I have worked with Trinity P3 on several projects, the most recent being a full commercial review of an incumbent media partner. As a university we review large commercial contracts systematically, however, we needed to ensure we could do this without the disruption of a full pitch. We approached Trinity, because of the confidence we have in their knowledge and expertise in market. Within 6 weeks a full market review was carried out with written recommendations. The process created minimal disruption to the team and provided critical benchmarks and evaluations, which ultimately gave us confidence to negotiate and renew our partnership.
I enlisted the services of Trinity P3 to perform a financial benchmark on an advertising agency. Prior to this, I had already engaged the agency for a strategic project. Instead of going through a lengthy pitch process involving multiple agencies for the creative execution, I approached Nick and his team to conduct a cost benchmark. The resulting report and analysis were impressively thorough, providing valuable insights that helped me make well-informed decisions during negotiations. I wholeheartedly endorse Trinity P3 for their professionalism and dedication to delivering actionable results promptly.
We engaged Trinity P3 to conduct an efficient yet robust media agency selection process across ANZ markets. We had a tight brief and I’ll be honest, high expectations of a new media agency – in all, I can safely say that Trinity P3 enabled us to conduct a fast and fair process.
What was of particular value for us as a client was the nuance Trinity P3 presented in their benchmarking, their adaptable approach to the process we wished to run and finally, the overall commercial common sense they brought to the process. On this latter point, the contract and fee templates were very helpful to educate our internal teams, as it is often the case that there is no specific media services agreement to hand.
Where did we end up? With a new media agency that is right sized for our current stage of growth and a motivating, performance related fee model for our new media agency partner. This would not have been possible without the guidance of Stephen and the team at Trinity P3.
Darren and Trinity P3 recently spent time with our agency to provide a fresh perspective on our positioning and value proposition. The feedback was equal parts honest, tangible and encouraging. We left our session together with two priceless gifts: (1) clarity on our path forward and (2) conviction that we are moving in the right direction. Our entire leadership team is invigorated! I highly recommend Trinity P3 to any agency that needs to take its story to the next level. Thanks, Darren!
I engaged David Angell and the TrinityP3 team to assist Swinburne in leading a closed account review for the provision of media strategy, planning and buying services in 2022. We had a strong and highly productive relationship in place with the incumbent provider, however after five years we needed to benchmark the pricing and services, and I was also keen to gain feedback from both sides on what we could do to make the partnership even better.
TrinityP3 produced a comprehensive report, structured with clear, actionable insights, which enabled a very smooth contract renegotiation process. Due to the deep expertise and objectivity that TrinityP3 brought to the table, we were able to focus our efforts on the areas that needed attention, and ensure the new contract was fit for purpose, competitive and supported the growth of an already strong partnership – without the time, effort and cost of a full market process.
Thanks to David and team for their professionalism, integrity and expertise.
Trinity P3 was a great partner during our latest pitch. Throughout the process, they kept us highly informed which led to positive outcomes for both our agency and the client. Their thorough brief documentation, clear communications about the next stages and constructive feedback from key sessions made the whole process feel transparent and engaging. They bring a wealth of experience, insights and integrity that facilitates a well-managed engagement for all parties involved.
We partnered with Trinity P3 for a Digital Marketing tender process. They provided a robust and comprehensive evaluation of the digital landscape while providing invaluable insights and strategic advice along the process.
Anton and the team were great to collaborate with and a pleasure to work with and has set us up to deliver digital marketing excellence.
Just to say a huge thanks for your time and input in the session yesterday – we got a lot out of it and it has certainly given us some food for thought about how we continue to promote and present the agency.
It was pleasing to hear that we have some good foundations to build on – but you raised some great points that really resonated with us and ones that we will certainly take on-board.
I have to commend Kylie and the team at Trinity P3 for running a very tight pitch process – clear, unambiguous, responsive, and supportive throughout. Trinity P3 made our jobs easier as we were not having to second guess the process and meant that we could focus on delivering great work for the client. Ultimately this led to a better outcome for both the agency and the client.
As a young creative I first benefited from Darren’s experience when he was an Executive Creative Director. In the years since, his feedback, guidance and industry insights have become ever more valuable, as I’ve happily grown various agency businesses and he’s happily told me what we’re doing right and wrong each step of the way! There’s not much Darren doesn’t know about the industry and what clients are looking for. His insights are delivered with clarity, candour and often a good chuckle. He is a true pleasure to work with.
Customer satisfaction is the goal with every project. Below are just some of the things clients have had to say about working with TrinityP3. Click here to read more Client Testimonials. And because positive client and agency relationships are integral to what we do, make sure you also read our Agency Testimonials.
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FAQs
Our data has been built and refined over twenty years. Our benchmarks are calibrated to you - there are a range of benchmarks based on the scope and complexity of your account, and we use assessment tools to determine this. Once the benchmark level is calibrated, we provide hundreds of data-points in our report to you, covering fees and composition of fees, resourcing and composition of resourcing, increnental cost rate-cards, out of scope rate-cards, overhead recovery and mark-up levels, third party production, and more. Using a simple traffic light approach we can decode the complexity, and show you exactly where you should be paying less, more or in a different way for the various services provided by your agency. We often find when conducting operational assessments, that service level deficits or capability issues identified in qualitative assessment can often be traced right back to the quantitative financial evaluation.
Yes, we can. We can advise on, build or work with numerous remuneration structures, including incentive and performance based.
We use detailed proprietary spreadsheets for agencies to complete, against which we base our evaluation and which can be transferred into your final agreements. We also provide contractual advice regarding agency transparency.
4. What factors do you consider when developing a bespoke agency scope of work or scope of services?
We consider a variety of factors including current and future needstates, feasibility and fit of capabilities, financial and resourcing impact and operational impact. Ultimately, a scope needs to come from you; but we are here to help with templates, advice and commercial recalibration to ensure best fit.
We make recommendations specifically related to agency responsibilities, transparency, clarity, governance, operations, financial process and service inclusions.
The respective pros and cons of any model are entirely dependent on your individual circumstance. This is one of many reasons why every project we conduct is tailored. We will advise you on best options and pros and cons of each once we have fully understood your position, and thoroughly assessed it.
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