On Advertising Agencies Putting their Money Where Their Mouth Is

Coke is apparently talking up a new strategy for interacting with ad agencies based on the marketplace performance of each campaign. If said campaign meets consumer response criteria, the agency pockets costs plus profit. If it doesn’t, Coke covers costs but the agency gets no bonus. It’s so logical it’s practically revolutionary.

I’m glad someone is starting to take ad agencies to task and demand measurable results. As Mark Stevens notes in Your Marketing Sucks, “If every dollar you spend in marketing doesn’t bring back a dollar in revenue, your marketing sucks.”

From my perspective, too many agencies build creative for clients that eventually wins the AGENCY new business (or awards), but doesn’t effectively impact the CLIENT’s bottomline. And often this happens in the name of “brand recognition” or “you’re the talk of the town.” 

But talk doesn’t cook rice.