How to Tender for an Advertising/ Marketing Agency

By Liz MurphySenior Marketing and Communications Consultant07939 167313 in the UK

Establish what you need an agency to do

• A full service agency will be able to do (almost) everything a marketing department can do and more. Do you need all this? Would a specialist consultant be cheaper and better?

• What specialist services do you need? i.e. PR, media buying, creative etc.

• For just a project or an ongoing relationship?

• Overall how much do you have to spend including media costs and….. be honest to yourself and prospective agencies

How to find agencies to approach

• Assuming it’s not a big Public Sector contract which will be advertised, it’s likely you will know people and agencies

• If you don’t you can obviously look online but try networking to find old colleagues who are doing work you admire. They can either give you a recommendation or offer their services if they have moved onto an agency

• Agencies do a lot of prospecting to find new business. If they have taken the time to contact you, they could be worth investigating

Review possible agencies in person

• Meet them, in their offices if possible

• Review their work

• Let them give you their credentials pitch

• Ask others, from your company to review with you because that offers a different perspective

• Examine testimonials & references

• Ask, if you commission them who would do your work i.e. a junior or a director?

• Most importantly, could you work with these people?

Ask three companies to tender

• Why three? In a pitch situation, an agency will put you time and effort into preparing ideas, for free. More than three and the odds of winning are poor and……………. that’s a little unfair

• If you decide to ask more than 3 agencies to tender, please be professional, inform all the agencies and ask if they still want to be involved

• Now give them all the same task so they can show their skills and fees. You will be able to compare and contrast the output by being consistent in your requirements. For this you will need a written document – i.e. a brief

Write a brief

• A short document outlining what you want the agency to do

• Here are some of the headings:• Background – so why do this advertising/ marketing?

• Objective/s – what do you want to achieve?

• Target audience – demographic, attitudinal etc.

• Offer or promise – remember to think about benefits rather than features and spend time carefully considering

• Supporting evidence – why should anyone believe you?

• Key messages/ takeout – what should someone think, feel or do as a result of this?

• Media channel – document if you know it/ have a preference, or keep open in the brief so the agency can make recommendations

• Timing

• Budget

• These general principles work on a range of projects from a TV or radio commercial to a website, a landing page, a banner ad, leaflet, brochure, press ad or even big integrated campaign. It can be used with the current agency, internal department or for tendering.

• My special tip, share internally & get feedback. Two heads are always better than one.

Give the pitching agencies your time

• Many agencies will generate creative work, marketing and PR ideas for free, in the hope you will buy their work & hire them

• Please act honourably & respect that people are trying to make a living by doing this

• The agencies will need your time to understand your business & the task set in the brief

• They also need your time to pitch back to your team, ideas and costs and often creative concepts

• Once you & your team have seen all three pitches, compare the output and examine what has been offered

The Devil is in the detail!

Things to consider • The amount of client servicing your team needs

• To pay a retainer and gain the benefits from this or pay project by project

• The seniority of day to day agency staff

• Any service level agreements you could agree?

• Consider copyright – such as photography, straplines, film footage, which can be a complex issue

• The on-costs and discounts on media and other purchased services

• The length of contract you can reasonably sign

• Is the agency financially healthy? If they go bankrupt it could cause you major problems

Now negotiate!

• Almost everything in life is negotiable and that includes everything the agency is offering

• The critical point is to make it a discussion

• Please remember that these agencies have pitched for free so the least that they should be able to expect from you is an open and frank conversation

• It is likely they will want detailed feedback

Would you like some Objective Support?

• Getting this right is more art than science because each situation is complex and unique

• An external opinion, on your biggest career decision, might be wise

• I’d also recommend market research testing creative concepts before committing to them

• Finding a freelancer to support you through this could be the wisest step yet. I do know someone who might be able to help, inexpensively

Need some help?

• I’m a successful, freelance, marketing consultant at director level

• You can hire me for a few weeks, a few months or offer me a job

• It would be my pleasure to help you find a great agency and even run the account

• Feel free to ring me for a chat

Liz Murphy

lizmurphywork@gmail.com

07939 167313 in the UK,

find me on LinkedIn or

see more at my website

www.marketingconsultant.org.uk