Breaking Silos: The Key to Effective Cross-Agency Teamwork

How Brand Advertisers Can Foster Collaboration, Enhance Communication, and Drive Collective Success!

The largest brands in the world rely on a web of agencies across several advertising and marketing disciplines. Some brands have dozens, even hundreds, of agency partners working on their behalf. The ability of their agencies to seamlessly collaborate and work together enables brands to maximize the potential of these partnerships and succeed in the marketplace. But achieving a unified front can be a struggle, as agencies have a natural tendency to be territorial.

Let’s explore four ways to strengthen agency connections and cooperation.

1. A Well-Defined Agency Model

When brands carefully assemble a roster of agencies to carry out advertising and marketing duties, they must have a model that ensures the most effective use of these valuable agency resources. For example, a large packaged goods company may have several agencies assigned to a particular brand, in a specific region or market, with each firm bringing specialized skill sets and resources to the table. The chosen model may require one agency to take the lead on creative aspects by orchestrating the work across various partners (e.g., packaging, activation, PR, digital) to deliver a cohesive brand experience. Each agency plays an important part. For these agencies to play well together in the sandbox, a well-defined model must articulate with clarity which partners do what, when, and how. The model may include a workflow with lanes in a RACI chart showing who is responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed, and detailing their combined role at critical stages of a campaign.

2. Operating Guidelines and Partnership Principles

Cross-vendor collaboration refers to when multiple suppliers, often from different companies or sectors, work together to achieve a common goal or deliver a unified solution. In the advertising world, cross-vendor collaboration implies that agencies work together smoothly on their client’s behalf. To do so, they follow a set of operating guidelines that define that collaboration based on the company’s culture and policies. These guidelines are informed by a set of principles (e.g., integrity, respect, cooperation, accountability, innovation, continuous improvement, excellence) that defines how partnerships come to life. It may include topics such as how the agency partners will:

• Communicate to align on goals or expectations
• Avoid misunderstandings
• Quickly resolve issues or misalignment
• Establish transparent practices among themselves
• Use systems and tools to cooperate
• Share data or information with one another
• Report on their progress

To continue reading and gain deeper insights, visit the full article on the Agency Mania Solutions website: Breaking Silos: The Key to Effective Cross-Agency Teamwork