Like any relationship, the Client and Agency relationship can, at times, be a complicated one. There can be misaligned expectations, communication issues, creative differences, personality clashes, and fights about money (marketing budget).
What’s worrisome, is that 55% of brands say they are likely to “break up” with their agency in the next six months, according to a recent survey done by Setup.
Setup is a company that is similar to a matchmaker, in the sense that it matches brands up with agencies.
Since Setup started conducting what they call the “Marketing Relationship Survey” five years ago, they’ve noticed that in the past three years, the percentage of brands wanting to break up with their agency has only increased.
So what’s the number one reason for the breakups? The brands are dissatisfied with the value they are receiving from their agency.
Brands say that apart from good communication, they are dying to see their agency partners lead with data and become a strategic partner.
Add value, and save the relationship
Now, we are not going to claim that we can help you fix a broken relationship. But what we can do is show you one way in which your agency can become a strategic partner, and lead with data, to hopefully avoid any client “breakups” in the future.
Like any good relationship, the other is supposed to help their partner grow. In this article we are going to show you how you can help your client grow (grow their market share to be specific).
For the rest of 2024, and into 2025, if you can be an agency that identifies a customer segment your client has yet to conquer, and you provide them with the insights and strategy to do so, we would call that providing high value.
And maybe that “value” can be the thing that saves the agency/client relationship.
Start with the market landscape
The first step in helping your clients grow their market share is to have an updated view of the market landscape.
What we mean by that is, that you should have an idea of all the customer segments that live within the market.
That way you can start to identify some segments your clients might have been ignoring thus far or haven’t invested in.
One way to go about this is to do lengthy and costly market research, but for a faster, more economical way, we’re using Audiense to gather this audience in minutes.
Let’s pretend your client is a Vegan Protein brand, and you want to analyze the “Vegan fitness” market. This market is very broad, and there are so many different Vegan customer segments that live within it:
You’d be shocked at how many of these segments your client might not even be aware of (*hint hint, here’s a value-add opportunity). So we suggest showing them a breakdown like the picture above - once a quarter could be a good rule of thumb because market landscapes are forever changing, and if your agency can give them a regular update, you’re consistently proving your value.
Get an updated look at your client’s audience
Now that you have an idea of the segments that make up your client’s market, it’s important to have a *updated* view of your client’s customer base. In this example let’s pretend the client is Vega, the plant-based protein brand.
Here’s the audience breakdown the Vega brand:
You might be shocked to learn that some of your clients are totally unaware of some of the segments that emerge within their own audience.
This isn’t uncommon either - a great example of this was when the brand Burt’s Bees, a brand known for their beeswax lip products and natural skin products, took a deeper look at their audience base.
What they uncovered was a segment of new moms, that they had previously not known about, who bought Burt’s Bees because it was a chemical-free product they could use on their babies.
The value of this information meant that Burt’s Bees could now cater and market to this audience segment, and they even ended up creating a specific Burt’s Bees baby line. They also built campaigns that brought more brand awareness to this segment of moms.
Find out what your client’s competitors' audience looks like
With an eye on the competition, you can see which other brands have been able to capture audiences your client has not. Here is a look at plant-based protein competitor Nuva’s audience:
What’s interesting to see is completely new clusters emerge that we haven't seen in Vega’s audience, like the Mommy Bloggers. This could be a good cluster to go after because of the influence they have online.
What’s also interesting to note is that Vega definitely has conquered the Runners audience, and you don’t see them appear in Nuva’s customer base.
Detailed insights like these can give your client the competitive edge, and they will look at you like a valued partner for giving them that edge.
Decide which audience you’ll go after and build a marketing strategy
Now it’s time to decide if you will:
- Double down on an audience Vega has already captured that the competitor has not
- Market to a segment from the Vegan market that Vega hasn’t yet captured
- Or go after a segment found within Vega’s competitors audience
Whichever audience you choose to target, you’ll have the insights you need to do so.
Just take a look at the snapshot of insights we found on competitor Nuva’s “Health conscious entrepreneurs” audience (the perfect audience group for Vega to target with their own product):
Vega can focus their energy on this segment and create a campaign directed at this group, and in six months time you can re-analyze their audience to see if this new audience shows up within their owned audience.
No more break ups
We don’t want 2025 to be the year of more agency and brand breakups. Like any relationship, the agency and brand relationship requires a lot of work. Brands have said they are waiting to see more value from their agencies - so agencies need to focus on providing that value.
Show your clients that your agency is a strategic partner, and help them dominate new audiences and increase sales.
Do it by being an agency led by data, using insights like the ones we covered above.
Sign up for Audiense and keep the agency and brand relationship strong.
