News & Insights

Performance reviews… Why do marketers implement and adhere to a performance review program for their staff? Obviously because it allows staff and managers to re-group, and ensure they’re on the right track in terms of KPI’s, marketing goals, and ultimately the business plan. Given the meaningfulness of such reviews, why is it that some marketers don’t see the inherent need to apply a similar review program with their marketing suppliers?

After weeks of negotiations followed by a handshake or email agreement between partners, we are finding lately that some agencies do not want to put pen to paper to formalise the client relationship. In the last few years Enth Degree has assisted in the appointment of numerous agencies, across all disciplines, to partner with and service our clients’ marketing needs. One thing that has become more common over the last 12 months, is that a number of agencies are becoming increasingly wary of signing Service Level Agreements (SLAs), that contain not only commercial terms but process and intellectual property based clauses. So after the champagne corks have long…

AdNews recently published an article with the headline “Discounting: Can the pants be pulled back up or are agencies all too exposed?” The article concerned a media agency who supposedly offered an “unheard of” discount of 92% on television rates in order to win a recent pitch. While of course the size of the discount cannot be believed, the rumour could be simply explained as one of two things:

In a meeting with a Media Agency CEO recently, I was asked, “what are marketers really looking for from their Media Agencies?” Many Media Agencies believe the holy trinity to be “innovation”, “creativity” and “partnership”. Of course, these are critical contributors to the success of a marketer’s communications. But so are cut through creative, great packaging, a great sales force, optimum distribution and retailers that support them (plus a myriad of other considerations) – so let’s not fool ourselves into believing that all marketers have to think about is media. Good media practice is a given.

Innovative strategic thinking is something you would expect your creative or media agency partner to provide; so the question is have you applied expert strategic thinking to managing your agency portfolio? The ability to apply advanced and experienced thinking to agency remuneration and management can deliver a fundamental change in marketing behaviour both on the client AND agency side to drive effective and efficient marketing campaigns and relationships. What is it? Application of experienced insights (national and international), benchmarks and interpretation by industry practitioners to develop forward thinking initiatives for agency remuneration and process management. With the growing focus on digital media and its many related challenges, we…

Everyone wants the hottest model. But what if the hottest isn’t the best for your business?  More and more marketers and businesses are using the “fixed fee” remuneration model. It’s popular and easy to implement. But is that the best for your business? Our projects start with an analysis that can determine the most appropriate model for your business goals and ROI rather than worrying about simple percentages, $ hourly rates or the reliability on agency timesheets.

All marketers need to understand the implications of this unacceptable accounting practice and identify how much it is costing. The value identified through a simple invoice review can deliver tens of thousands of dollars of your media spend. Media Suspense Account – What is it? Unreconciled credits, the difference between what the client has paid and what the media company has invoiced, are put into a ‘media suspense’ aka ‘media hold’ account. Newspapers, TV stations, outdoor companies don’t always get their invoicing 100% correct. Not all spots will appear as planned on a TV Network, A newspaper may place your ad correctly as booked on page 5 but…

A few years back, “media agnostic” was a cliché that was vogue for those companies trying to differentiate their Media Agency from a competitive set evaluated on their ability to deliver “the most competitive rate platform”. It was used to get agencies to a position whereby their strategic credentials were at the fore.

The most common and complex frustration of a client in the area of marketing value management is finding a relevant remuneration structure for agencies that can work for both the client and the agency. Ask yourself – does your agency remuneration model provide you with flexibility, transparency and relevance to your campaign requirements and changing budgets. If not, if could be time to look at your contract to maximise your ROI. Common Frustrations At Enth Degree, with over 20 years’ experience, we are market experts in agency remuneration for major marketers Nationally and Internationally. We have seen both the best and worst in agency remuneration practices and have…

Media accountability and transparency continues to grow through ever improving measurement systems, yet we find that many media agencies either don’t have the time, or perhaps the inclination, to provide their clients with meaningful and transparent post campaign reporting. Apart from the common absence of detail and learnings, some reports can be misleading. So is there a point to these reports? Absolutely.