Woolley Marketing: An agency village can be the dream team or a disaster

Not far from where you are reading, there is a village—one of an increasing number of villages. But it is not the little idyllic village you would traditionally think about, with quaint shops and houses.

This village is populated by businesses called ad agencies and marketing suppliers. It is created by a marketer who has chosen the people who will populate it. Or perhaps they have inherited the people in their village. Either way, they are responsible for the village's functioning and health.

These agency villages result from two major developments. The first is the increased complexity of the media channels and the number of experts needed to operate in each consumer touchpoint or connection.

The second is the natural inability of any one agency or marketing supplier to be suitably skilled at all these channels and connections. Therefore, the marketer must choose from a selection of specialists to meet their needs, which leads to the creation of said village.

Occasionally, a marketer will contact a holding company or network to create a village for them. This could be an integrated offering of various businesses within the holding company, or a bespoke agency created by pillaging people across multiple agencies and businesses to create a new agency.

No matter how the agency village is created, the predictor of that village's performance comes down to how it is led and managed. Because not all villages are quaint little hamlets, you may imagine. Some are loud and energetic places. Others are simmering pools of discontent. At its worst, the village leads to an all-out war among the agencies that may be more akin to the Lord of the Flies island.

Illustration: Dennis Flad

In many ways, a warring village can be better than one in the grip of political power struggles, as regular disagreements and upsets are apparent, if annoying, having to be constantly involved in sorting out the battles.

But why is it so?

It comes down to understanding the dynamic within the typical village. You have a collection of hopefully ambitious, motivated, strategic and often creative individuals working together. In the ideal environment, they have clear roles and responsibilities and are aligned to work together toward a common objective or goal, the achievement of which allows them all to be rewarded for their efforts.

Marketers often make the mistake of thinking that the village of agencies can work together themselves. While this can be true, it is also true that they are set up in competition for the marketing budget. And the winner takes it all. This is a disruptive competition focused on the wrong marketing outcome.

Therefore, the marketing team must spend time and effort creating this environment. Establishing ground rules and integrating new members into the village are important considerations when managing an agency village. It would be best to think of the village as an extension of your marketing team and ensure all team members are aware of its rules.

Sure, having a village purpose-built for you or an integrated offering from a holding company will allow you to abdicate some of the responsibility. With all the services under a single ownership, it is easier for them to manage the village's operations. But add one independent agency to this village, operating adjacent to the main holding company or network solution, and then the responsibility falls back on the marketer.

Also, the more complex your requirements and marketing needs, the more complicated your agency village, and the more difficult and complex performance management. It is a fool’s errand to think that creating any village of agencies will allow you to focus on the job at hand, marketing simply. For an agency village to perform heavenly, you must invest the time and resources to set it up for success and manage the process.

And a final piece of advice if you manage a village—beware of the 'village idiot'. Every village has one. And if you don’t know who the idiot is in your village, you need to be very concerned… it may very well be you.

Woolley Marketing is a monthly column for Campaign Asia-Pacific, penned by Darren Woolley, the founder and global CEO of Trinity P3. The illustration accompanying this piece is by Dennis Flad, a Zurich-based marketing and advertising veteran.