Selecting an Advertising Agency

While selecting an advertising agency, the importance of compatibility should be borne in mind. An agency takes a long time to grasp the problems and accumulate the facts that are necessary for the smooth functioning of a client. Though this investment period is long, it pays rich dividends. Therefore, an agency should not be frequently changed.

Here are some points that can help the advertiser to:

• Choose an agency ; and
• Get the best out of an agency.

 Choosing an Agency

• The agency should be able to think independently on various problems, and not solve them by pre-conceived notions which it is unwilling to change.
• The agency should have experience in selling goods and ideas. It should be able to bring in more results than anticipated.
• The company should be financially sound and should be able to cover both local and national advertising campaigns.
• The size of the agency should not be seriously taken into account. A big agency is not necessarily a better than a small agency.
• The agency should not be one that hesitates to correct the advertiser if it feels that he is wrong.
• The agency should be able to use both research and brains to solve problems.
• An agency that plans to make a profit on an account should be chosen, rather than one that maintains that it will work on a no-profit-no-loss basis.

Getting the Best Out of an Agency

• The agency should be given all possible information if good service is expected from it.
• The advertiser should go as far as possible to keep the agency on its toes.
• The agency should be challenged to produce results.
• Criticism, when it is handed out, should not be only unfavourable. It should also be favourable.
• Unnecessary details should not be fussed over.
• The advertiser should appoint a special person for liaison work between his company and the agency, and not expect the agency to contact the junior staff.
• The advertiser should allow the agency, where necessary, to break away from convention in its presentations.
• The agency should be paid extra, if it does any extra work.
• The advertiser should examine the work his agency does for other parties to get new ideas.

It is about time that the top management looked upon advertising as a basic capital investment –a long-term investment –which does not necessarily always bring in immediate returns. The management should realize that advertising has two functions to perform. It has to sell products today and sell the name of the company, so that tomorrow’s products, too, will sell.