A RECENT SURVEY SHOWS THAT THE QUALITY OF THE AGENCIES HAS MADE A SHARP JUMP UPWARDS
The recent study “Reputation and Customer Satisfaction of Marketing Agencies 2018” answers the questions who are the most remarkable actors in the field, and why do the reputation leaders stand out. The study also reveals how marketers choose their agencies. Organizing events is a vast area where many agencies try to prove themselves.
The survey shows that agencies’ services are used, on the one hand, because companies themselves do not have enough people with the necessary skills and, on the other hand, because the specialists at the agencies have a more diverse pool of experiences. Organizing events is an in-depth process and therefore the agency is expected to provide high quality content (creativity and the ability to be a strategic partner in marketing) as well as to be a good co-operation partner (flexibility and focusing on customers as well as high quality project management).
The size of marketing budgets has slightly decreased, but in general has remained at the same level as last year – compared to 51 percent of companies with a budget of over 100,000 euros in 2017, by 2018 48 percent had the same budget. Compared to the previous year, there was a slight increase in the expectations on the quality of cooperation: flexibility, customer focus and quality of project management. The agency should, according to the customers, be a specialist in marketing tools, but at the same time no specific knowledge in the field of activity of the customer is expected. The selected partner agency for organizing events should be aware of major trends in the sector.
In the course of the survey, customers were also asked to assess how important do they consider the victory of the realized campaign at the advertising and creativity competition Kuldmuna (Golden Egg). It turned out that 56 percent of respondents consider winning the Golden Egg to be important or very important, which is significantly more than a year ago. More specifically, the percentage has increased by 12 percent compared to the year before.
There are a number of smaller and less well-known agencies among the highly awarded agencies in different categories. The high ratings given to them reflect, according to Mari-Liis Eensalu, the research expert at Kantar Emor, who carried out the survey, the flexibility of small agencies and their good co-operation with their existing partners, as well as their potential for future growth. Organizing events is a service with a very personal approach, which may be difficult to follow in a large company belonging to a group.
The study conducted by Kantar Emor was commissioned by the Marketers’ Union. Signe Kõiv, the Executive Manager of the Union, stated that the aim was to map the competitive situation of marketing and communication services and to measure customer satisfaction of the agencies that belong to the Union. “When satisfaction surveys are common among agencies and customers are often asked to provide feedback on the cooperative relationships, the study commissioned by the Union provides a common basis for everyone for measuring results and helps the agency to position itself in the competitive environment,” she said.
According to Ivo Kallasmaa, a Member of the Board of the Marketers’ Union, the number of participants in the survey initiated last year has significantly increased compared to the previous year and the decision to carry out the research has positively proved itself to the people in the field. “The survey can provide feedback on the performance of last year’s activities in comparison with the previous year to understand what today’s customers see as the strengths and development areas of the agencies,” he said. Kallasmaa added that the agencies’ overall reputation and qualitative indicators have improved significantly compared to the previous year and that the research can help to make the sector even stronger.
The survey gave an overview of four categories: advertising, event marketing, digital & design and PR. As a result of the survey, a number of smaller agencies surprisingly received the highest reputation scores among PR agencies, ranking as follows: Meta Advisory, Agenda PR, Dalton, Corpore and Hamburg & Partners.
Neway, Velvet, AKU and OKIA earned the highest reputation scores among digital and design agencies.
In the advertising field, the highest scores were given to Optimist, Refleks, AD Angels, Kontuur Leo Burnett and Initiative.
In the events organization category the agencies receiving the highest score in the field were ID Production, Milestone Events, Frank Events, Jolos and Orangetime.
29 advertising, event marketing, digital and design and PR agencies were involved in the survey this year. 302 marketing decision makers responded to the questions, with a total of 923 collaborative relations being assessed by them.