Marketing Procurement

Top Tips: IPA & CIPS on how agencies, marketing and procurement can work better together

Respect

“Regardless of your sector or expertise, these guidelines ensure respectful and efficient practices are carried out across the board between all three parties; procurement, marketing and agencies”

The relationship between procurement, marketing and agencies isn’t always as strong as it should be. The best relationships work when there is open and clear communication between all parties and that is particularly important between procurement and their agencies.

Approached by the IPA finance committee, CIPS were told that agencies still felt there was considerable misinformation surrounding the role of procurement. The solution to this, both felt, was to create content which helped to educate all parties. Not only agencies, but also marketing and procurement. 

Marketing Procurement Consultant and Chair of the CIPS Specialist Knowledge Group in Marketing, Tina Fegent, worked closely with Joyce Kelso, Associate Director, Marketing at IPA to focus on a top tips list from agency to procurement. This was before realising, Fegent says, that there were multiple relationships at play and that really what was beneficial, was finding an opportunity to educate everybody involved. 

Marketing clients, and the procurement professionals that work with them, need to ensure that they achieve maximum value from their agency relationships, and agencies need to ensure they are profitable, sustainable businesses. 

Regardless of your sector or expertise, these guidelines ensure respectful and efficient practices are carried out across the board. They focus on the relationship between all three parties; procurement, marketing and agencies, with the aim of becoming a checklist in developing effective ongoing working practices.

While some of these tips below are tailored to specific areas, these three apply to agencies, marketing and procurement alike.

1. Leverage our expertise
   We’re all experts in our respective fields, let’s respect that and use it to work efficiently together. 
2. Respect our time
   Allow sufficient time to complete the process. Be responsive and respectful of each other’s time. 
3. Be open and collaborative
   Be open, collaborative and trust in us as partners. The best people deliver the best results. Creativity and innovation aren’t developed in the same way every time. 

The following tips are specific to individual relationships between either marketing, agencies or marketing procurement. 

Agency tips to marketing

1. Understand the engagement process
   Involve procurement early, and align your objectives and expectations with them. 
2. Post contract
   Establish the KPIs and set measurement benchmarks at the beginning of the relationship, and continue to review with us on a regular basis. 
3. Scope and category clarity
   When compromises are made around scope, make sure the story is mutually articulated into our team. 
4. Partner with us
   Be clear about your objectives and consider long-term brand building as well as short term activation. Consider also the 60/40 rule that will help grow the business now and in the future. 
5. Involve us
   Be fully transparent from day one. Make us aware of the things that will impact us, for example, if in-housing is on the agenda and share any on-going changes in business results. 
6. Be open to new pricing principles and models
   There are many new and alternative ways that we can deliver profitable ideas. Creativity and innovation aren’t developed the same way every time. Involve the procurement team and consider new pricing models. 
7. Be clear
   Understand the business issue you want to solve and the outcomes. Business outcomes, not just inputs and outputs, should be the frame of reference for the Statement of Work.

Marketing to agency 

1. Understand the onboarding process
   Respect and work with the process we have developed with our procurement colleagues so we can move quickly to get the right commercial structure in place and comply with our internal sign off protocols. 
2. Post contract
   Help us get organised so our teams can work together efficiently with agreed KPIs, benchmarking and formal reviews scheduled to evaluate our collective performance. We don’t want time or resources wasted. 
3. Scope and category clarity
   Work with us to agree a well-defined scope of work at the outset, and make sure it is kept up to date as requirements inevitably change over time. 
4. Partner with us
   Advise us how best to optimise our investment in marketing communication so we achieve profitable growth by strengthening our brand and customer franchise over time. 
5. Involve us
   Be transparent with us so we can understand the implications of our decisions on the way you run your business. 
6. Be open to new pricing principles and models
   We are open to negotiation on the best formula for remuneration which rewards great work and is value for money. 
7. Be clear
   We expect you to challenge our brief until you have the clarity to ensure your work will result in significant business impact for us.

Agency tips to Procurement 

1. Seek to understand the industry
   Be informed about our industry. The IPA, CIPS and ISBA websites host a wealth of industry knowledge, to give you a better understanding of what agencies do and the value they deliver.
   2. Post contract
   Establish the KPIs and set measurement benchmarks at the beginning of the relationship, and continue to review with us on a regular basis.
   3. Scope, budget and category clarity
   Whilst budgets are scenario dependent, be clear about the investment. Or if it’s not possible, try to be indicative – for projects as well as for pitching. Be conscious of discussing quality, scope and timeframes.
   4. Provide the full context
   Be fully transparent from day one and make agencies aware of the things that will be impacting them.
   5. Consider different ways to demonstrate value
   Look at results through an ROI and value-delivered lens. Sometimes the work being procured could deliver more value than will be saved if agencies don’t have to cut corners to deliver.
   6. Mutual growth
   Understand the capabilities of individual agencies and associated companies. Think about how you can mutually grow together, extending overall scope to provide efficiencies and economies of scale.

Procurement to Agencies

1. Knowledge share
   Teach us what we don’t know. We don’t know everything about marketing, and things change very quickly. So, if there is something that you think we don’t understand, teach us; we love to learn.
2. Understand the engagement process
   Although there are elements of flex, follow the instructions, meet the deadlines and rules of engagement.
3. Understand the contract process
   Let’s get this out the way, and agreed as quickly as possible. If feasible, sit down with all relevant parties; it’s important to manage risk so we can focus on the future.
4. Post contract
   Have regular reviews. We like to know how well you are doing, so agree and measure KPIs / SLAs, effectiveness, relationship targets etc. We will help with action plans to ensure we are all on track.
5. Scope and category clarity
   Understand our business needs and objectives. The more you know about us and our challenges the better you will be able to help the marketing team.
6. Partner with us
   Trust us – we aren’t trying to trip you up. Good marketing procurement people are experts in this field, and can add a lot of value for both our company and yours, there needs to be mutual trust.
7. Involve us
   Get to know us, and invite us to the activities and events that you invite our marketing colleagues to. Involve us throughout the process

Marketing to Procurement

1. Knowledge share
   Know the agency marketplace; who is good at what, who the movers and shakers are – and follow the talent. This really helps us.
2. Help us with the engagement process
   Simplify the process; tell us what we need to do to get suppliers on board or contracts in place quickly, don’t blind us with process.
3. Explain the contract process
   Simplify the language without the jargon. Explain the meanings, risk and impacts of our contractual commitments in layman’s terms.
4. Post contract
   Work with us to identify new ways of working and technology that can speed up our processes and make us more efficient and responsive.
5. Scope and category clarity
   Understand our category. Appreciate the complexity of our category and what we’re buying. Marketing is not a commodity. Adapt the procurement process to meet our needs.
6. Partner with us
   Be accessible and agile – help us work with speed, especially if we need to get to market quickly. Be willing to be more readily available to us when we are holding a pitch, and manage our expectations on response times.
7. Stay involved
   Stay informed; attend supplier events, conferences and fun stuff that we do, or that agencies invite us to. It really helps the learning process and helps build relationships. Consider sitting with us and join our team meetings so you become a key member of the marketing team

Procurement to Marketing

1. Knowledge share
   Involve us and share your strategic direction and challenges.
2. Understand the engagement process
   Ask our advice and challenge us about the process or whether other rostered or approved agencies are available.
3. Understand the contract process
   The contract is there to protect our company and brands. Be actively involved in developing it and ensure that you know what both the coverage and risks are.
4. Post contract.
   Lean on us. We will measure performance, hold the agency and the marketing team to account, and will be able to pre-empt any potential problems. We can also help by acting as an effective and neutral mediator.
5. Scope and category clarity
   Be clear about your requirements including the business challenges and objectives. Provide a clear scope of work and keep it up to date, so we can accurately reflect this in our contractual commitment with the agency.
6. Partner with us
   Working together will enable us to get the right agencies on the right terms to deliver the best results for you.
7. Involve us
   Invite us to internal meetings as we love to add value and can offer a different perspective. The more visibility we have the more value we can add, helping to manage the relationships with key agencies.

Tina Fegent is Marketing Procurement Consultant and Chair of the CIPS Specialist Knowledge Group in Marketing

Joyce Kelso is Associate Director, Marketing at IPA