THIS WEEK: Why ad agencies and their clients can mate for life

Dearly beloved readers, we are gathered here today to mourn, to

celebrate, and to question. Together we mourn the divorce, after 31

cuddlesome years, of United Airlines and its dear departed agency Leo

Burnett. The break-up of a long and once-loving marriage is always

deeply distressing - but three decades of matrimony ain’t bad going.

At the same time we celebrate, a trifle belatedly, the 70th birthday of

J Walter Thompson and the fact that JWT has held onto several of its

major clients - Kraft Jacob Suchard, Rowntree and Unilever - for well

over six decades.

And now to the question. It’s a question which plagues and infuriates

sales promotion companies, direct marketing agencies, packaging

designers, corporate image specialists, NPD consultancies and market

researchers, to mention but a few. Why do most clients have long-

standing and faithful relationships with their ad agencies - often

lasting many decades - while they constantly screw around like Clinton

with his zip down when dealing with other suppliers? What differentiates

ad agencies from the rest of the pack in this matter of client

promiscuity?

The truth is, I find it slightly puzzling myself. The subject is worthy

of a Ph.D. thesis in marketing management. The best I can offer are some

hypotheses which may partly explain it. Doubtless you yourself can offer

additional explanations of your own.

First, despite the endless shenanigans about the growth of other

marketing communications media, advertising is still where the big

’ackers are. Last year some pounds 11bn was spent above-the-line, and

that accounted for around 75% of total marketing communications

expenditure, of every kind. Size matters. Clients are rightly wary about

switching major contracts around. It is one thing to risk pounds 10,000,

or even pounds 100,000, on an untried supplier. It is quite another to

risk pounds 1m or more.

Second, and partly as a result, agencies have built themselves into

sizeable businesses, able to achieve long-term stability. In fact,

agencies have been particularly good at recruiting able young people. Or

anyway, they used to be good at it before so many clients thought it

clever to get so stingy. Market research companies are now getting good

at it, and at winning long-term contracts. But very few below-the-line

companies outlive their founders for long.

Third, wise advertisers know that communicating their brands’ benefits

in above-the-line media is difficult, and mistakes may cost them dear.

For most brands consistency is crucial. Chopping and changing agencies

is no way to achieve consistency.

All of which goes some way towards answering my opening question. And in

confirmation of my answers may I also congratulate my own agency,

Bozell, on its 75th birthday.

Winston Fletcher is chairman of Delaney Fletcher Bozell

This article was first published on Marketing