There is an increase scrutiny around marketing and advertising budgets, it’s more important for agencies to have the right tools to be able to deliver on ROIs of their campaigns in respective to what they charge their clients. Their spend involve their own cost of creating messages for their client’s audience (content), running campaigns, or other services such as profiling of new products, and more.
Most agencies typically build, and structure messaging based on the demographic and ethnographic reports of their clients. However, past performance indicators or their niche knowledge might only reflect past consumer behaviours, while agencies might be tasked to bring in new customers. Past data, such as : what ads worked, what creative failed, and more is no doubt very useful; But, it might only guide in the same markets or the same product lines, which is not always the case!
Some clients are launching new product lines, going into different demographics, or responding to regulations or competitor moves. This requires agencies, to not rely only on previous client data, or previous campaigns, but to learn more about different aspects, trends and factors, which all affect the solutions they choose for their clients. To do bridge this gap, agencies work with expert networks to get more informed about their client's industry in order to complement their solutions.
Prior to creating content, campaigns, website designs, and more; Agencies might need to understand the dynamics of the industry they are working in, especially if the agency has less experience or connections in the industry. Typically, agencies begin their projects with desktop research, spending hours scouring the Internet for reports and information on the client and their audience. However, the level of relevant information that they’re able to access is not always enough; and with client money on the line, it saves money to consult, have conversations with informed people, such as customers, suppliers, or competitors in the niche.
Partnering with an expert network can support the agency to get unbiased actionable information quickly, which then supports the agency to budget appropriately for campaigns prior to starting, and therefore, saving money.
Cooking new meals and trying new recipes seems easy when your family or loved ones are the target audience or consumer. But when it comes to a new product line which, might be sold by a chiropractor, you quickly realize that you might not have enough knowledge in such an industry to make the creative, or structure your messaging.
When working with corporations, agencies can be responsible for innovation in sectors that have niche buyer personas. A leading medical device manufacturer in Africa such as Revital healthcare, which is currently working towards local manufacturing of medical devices, with an inventory of 100+products that they wish to produce in different African markets.
To understand more about the new market, and the target audience, agencies can use subject matter-experts. Conducting interviews with the current or past product users, understanding past experiences, can allow agencies to access consumer insights that they would be unable to get otherwise.
Very often, some agencies are hired on retainer and when a shift happens in the market, or even within the company, the agency is required to adapt its deliverables or be forced to lose the client.
By conducting calls between agencies and industry expert leaders, agencies can formulate new solutions, which are compatible with current market shifts. They can better position themselves with their clients, and ultimately reduce the risk of losing business.
Most agencies spend time submitting proposals, responding to RFPs, with no guarantee that they will win the deal. At Afrorian, we consistently hear about the scrutiny on spending additional resources to gain a competitive edge while responding to RFPs. When in doubt, and when agencies need to respond to challenging proposals, they have the option to use 1:1 calls to get more insights about the industry and be able to speak the same language as their clients.
Beyond 1:1 calls with subject-matter experts, agencies can partner with expert networks to do more. Other solutions involve using experts to complement their research or project work for their clients.
An example of using expert insights in research: An agency, working on a go to market strategy for a client can use a pool of experts (such as c-suite executives, competitors, or consumers) to give written feedback and comments, in a confidential manner, allowing the agency to be confident in their final delivery to the client, without worrying about confidentiality or privacy concerns for their clients or participating experts.
