A French guide to relationships
A new French book lays down rules for relationships between agencies and clients. The fact it contains nothing startling or new does not matter, as John Shannon explains. John Shannon is President of Grey International
Last month saw the publication in France of Le Club des Directeurs Artistiques, a 16-page, 15-point guide to help advertisers and agencies work together successfully.
Entitled “How to work well with your agency”, the manual is based on interviews with five clients and seven agency creative and account people, all of them relatively senior and including Jacques Séguéla, Bernard Brochand and Nicolas Monnier on the agency side, and Jacques Calvet of Peugeot Citroë among the clients. It proposes principles such as mutual respect, honesty, the right to fail while pushing for ground-breaking advertising and the need for clear briefs, brevity in meetings and limits to the number of people who have direct influence on creative and production decisions.
Reading through this list, most of us would find little that will revolutionise the foundations of a successful relationship. Yet the evidence suggests that in France there was a need for a reminder of basic principles.
Earlier this year, the Etude Ballester, a poll conducted among advertisers to gauge attitudes towards agencies and industry practices, revealed that all was not well with French agency/client relationships.
Most seriously, an increase in pitch activity, with business often remaining at the incum- bent agency, was leading to accusations that some advertisers were trying to scare their agencies into becoming more productive.
That such claims were being made at all suggested that unacceptable levels of friction had crept into business partnerships, as the pressure of operating under economically difficult conditions had taken its toll.
However, while publication of this recent guide is a French response to a local problem, the issue of client relationships is of fundamental and increasing importance across Europe.
As more business is aligned with agency networks on a regional or global basis, agency/client relationships inevitably become more complex and multi-layered. Reconciling centralised strategic control or direction with local country perspectives can frequently create tensions and friction on both sides.
Sustaining and nurturing such relationships successfully becomes a key priority for agency man agements at international and local level. Flexibility, sensitivity and diplomacy are essential. International business alignment represents a major commitment for both agencies and clients, who accordingly have a mutual interest in adopting the kind of guidelines
proposed in France.
