I saw a presentation the other day from an Advertising Technology supplier. It focused on how quickly automated technology platforms have exploded. Kind of overwhelming.
Most of you have seen the slide. The sea of logos. I saw if first maybe a decade ago and people would marvel and be startled that there were over 250 logos on the slide. That’s amazing I heard people say.
Today there are over 5000 logos on that slide and most people say I can’t read it.
The speaker commented on how quickly and dramatically the advertising landscape is changing.
He basically said no one person or client could figure out on their own which platform was best and how much it would cost. Each had its unique features and some had licensing fees. All had strengths and weaknesses.
In my experience as a review consultant working for Jenny Craig, The UPS Store and The Habit Burger one of the first things that agencies ask is what’s the budget?
A predictable question from the Old Normal in a New Normal world.
Clients simply do not know how to project a budget in such a changing and dynamic environment the same way that agencies would not know what the budget would be to build a hot tub.
No client today except Watson can know everything. They cannot tell you what the best programming language to build a site is. They may know WordPress and they may know the strengths and weaknesses of various E Commerce platforms but they don’t know as much as agencies do.
If they did they don’t need your agency.
Most clients that use an agency review consultant are astute enough to know that an investment is going to be needed. That’s why they hire a consultant.
The agency that win the business in my experience will be the one that presents the most compelling argument for how much money does it take and how best to spend the money.
The first thing that will come out of their mouth won’t be what’s the budget?
That’s what vendors ask, not agency partners.