Unlike a blog, this is not a collection of musings or things that caught our attention today. Instead, it is a collection of the important insights, trends and issues we have encountered in our work with our clients and the solutions we have developed. This is why we call it our Knowledge Centre. It is where we share the collective knowledge of TrinityP3. We add to this regularly. We update it when and where needed. We recommend bookmarking this page and be sure to visit regularly when looking for inspiration, insight and knowledge on the world of marketing management.
How to take a true 360 degree view of all of your advertising agencies and suppliers
For quite a few years we were recommending to our clients that they should undertake regular relationship surveys and score cards as a way of bringing discipline to the management of the relationships with their agencies. There were a number ...
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A step by step approach to calculating ad agency resource rates and head hour costs
Due to the constant updates to the operating systems of the iOS requiring updates to the app, we have discontinued the Resource Rate Calculator app as of June 1, 2020. Instead you are able to use the calculators here. Thank ...
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When RFPs and RFTs are not enough when selecting an agency supplier
There is an increasing use of Request for Tenders and Requests for Proposals (RFX) by procurement in selecting strategic marketing suppliers. In fact the trade press, especially in the USA is often filled with articles about agency complaints about procurement run ...
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Breaking up (with your agency) is never easy I know
Abba sang "Knowing me, Knowing you" with the chorus being 'breaking up is never easy I know, but I have to go, Knowing me, Knowing you its the best I can do". And increasingly I have found that when the ...
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12 reasons why brainstorming does not work
Brainstorming is used as a collaborative tool for generating ideas. And many of us have been involved in brainstorming workshops either as part of strategy development or concept development. But there is evidence that the brainstorming process is flawed when ...
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Poor creative? Don’t blame the client as often the agency kills the idea
There are a number of reasons marketers may want to select a new agency partner, but one of the more common is a perception that the agency is not delivering the quality of creative thinking that the marketer requires. This ...
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What is included in your advertising agency overhead cost and what is not?
One area of agency remuneration that creates confusion for many marketers, procurement and even agencies is the calculation of the agency overhead. Overhead is the indirect cost of business and is usually presented as a percentage of the direct salary ...
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Did you want collaboration, cooperation or coordination with that marketing process?
There is a lot of talk about the need for collaboration in marketing and many are working to develop collaborative relationships within their organisations and across their agency roster. But when my friend from Anecdote, Shawn Callahan, guest posted here ...
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3 most common concerns marketers have about engaging an advertising production consultant
We have been providing production consulting advice since we started in 2000. In that time we have assessed, managed, negotiated and reviewed production both in Australia and New Zealand, but also around the world and especially in Asia-Pacific. These productions ...
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How Marketing and Procurement can obtain maximum value from an Advertising Production Consultant
The recent announcement by the AANA on television production costs is simply a reflection on the rising importance of this category. It has also seen an increase in the use of either procurement production or production consulting resources, including TrinityP3 ...
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Challenging the payment terms for television commercial production services
This is a question we recently received from one of our clients: "I have a question regarding the fact that we pay the agency 50% of TVC production costs upfront prior to production, and I wanted to know whether this ...
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10 sure-fire ways to get thrown off a pitch shortlist
Decided you really don’t want to win the business? Prefer to go with a bigger category brand instead? But too chicken to say so directly? Okay then. Let us save you the embarrassment. Here are ten sure-fire ways to get ...
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Is your advertising agency a supplier or a partner?
While many people in the industry talk about being in partnership with their agency or with their client, the majority of remuneration models do not support this position. Many advertisers and their procurement executives take a buyer/supplier view of these ...
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Advertising is rarely a manufacturing process, but sometimes it can be
A client's procurement team asked me to review their current services contract to ensure it reflected current 'best practice". Apart from the usual problems with intellectual property, the clause that jumped out was that the agency would deliver a 5% ...
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Aligning marketing expectations to marketing budget when establishing the agency scope of work
A marketer recently provided their extensive scope of work to their preferred agency so the agency could provide a remuneration proposal. The problem was that the proposal was almost double the marketer's budget for the agency fee. This budget was ...
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It is difficult searching agency details unless you know where to look
A marketer was questioning the cost of us providing a market review of agencies suitable for their requirements as they had a comprehensive list of suitable agricultural specialist agencies already. I asked how they developed the list and was told ...
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Poor manners leads to poor business strategic alignment with suppliers
I am often amazed at the simple basic rudeness that is tolerated within marketing and advertising, but which leads to poor communication, poor alignment and a large waste of time, effort and resources. There have been more than a handful ...
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Turning advertising production costs into financial assets
One of the most overlooked assets are the digital assets created by the advertiser's agency, design companies and direct marketing companies. It seems that for many advertisers the production process is a consumable one, with new advertising created with each ...
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How to calculate the agency head hours required to deliver your scope of work
Many remuneration agreements, be they project fees or retainers, are based on the head hour resources required to undertake the task multiplied by an overhead and profit factor. But one of the key issues is setting a realistic scope of ...
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Adding procurement and purchasing rigour into television advertising production
When the agency present "competitive" estimates for the latest television production, are you presented with the three quotes on one page, with the three costs all within 5% to 10% of each other? Is this familiar? Does this mean that ...
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8 reasons for Evalu8ing your advertising agencies, rather than just survey them
Eight Reasons For Evalu8ing Your Agencies (rather than just survey them) from TrinityP3 Marketing Management Consultants With more and more agencies and suppliers on most marketer’s rosters, having a fast, effective and easy way to be able to measure, manage ...
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How to save your advertising production costs by defining your requirements up front
No matter if it is TV, cinema, radio, online, print or digital, we invariably notice that budget over-runs, blowouts and increases are caused by changes in the specification of the task during or after the production process rather than in ...
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Paying peanuts? – It is not the smartest advertising agency remuneration strategy
No one wants to be paying too much for their advertising. But likewise, there are downsides to paying too little. We see it all the time, advertisers call us in because they are unhappy with the performance and service levels provided ...
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Save time and money by improving your advertising approval process
Sitting with a client and their agency, I was talking about the cost in time, resources and dollars being consumed by their convoluted approval processes. You see, we had identified that for most projects there were eight people involved in ...
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Seven things to consider before leaping into selecting an advertising agency
Choosing a new agency, be that creative, media, digital, experiential, shopper, pr or any one of the many other types of service providers is not something to be taken lightly. The cost and time involved and the impact on the ...
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What’s all this bull about agency billings? – A misleading measure of agency performance
Many people in the media still use media billings to indicate the size of the account or the size of the agency. Check out Mumbrella, or AdNews, B&T or even The Australian and The Financial Review. Even overseas, Advertising Age ...
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Ten tips for managing advertising production costs more effectively
It is interesting that 12 years ago when I started TrinityP3 (Simply P3 then) that the majority of our work was in Production Benchmarking and Management. In fact some of our earliest clients still think of us as production consultants ...
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When should an advertiser pay pitch fees when selecting a new advertising agency?
There are times when an advertiser should go to the market to select a new agency. But this is not a process that should be entered into lightly. Going out to the market place comes with several risks and costs ...
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To pitch or not to pitch? The issues every marketer should consider before answering this question.
Undertaking an agency review or "pitch" should only be done for the following reasons: 1. You want to appoint an agency provider for the first time. It may be a new business, new brand or growth in an existing business ...
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The importance of chemistry meetings in the advertising agency selection process
The chemistry between the marketing team and the agency is an important factor in the success of this relationship. Therefore, there needs to be an assessment and acknowledgement of this chemistry in the selection process of a new agency. This ...
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