New Business Agency Incite discuss key findings from IPA Survey

New Business Agency, Incite discuss key findings from the ‘IPA Q1 2013 New Business Survey Results’ in reaction to IPA President’s recent concerns over client to agency relationships.

In May the IPA New Business Survey Results were published. Although Incite did not comment at the time it certainly did not slip under our radar. In fact, it came as cause for celebration for Incite thanks to its shining recommendation of the use of intermediaries or a new business agency in agency procurement.

We were reminded of the importance of the survey research after Ian Priest, President of the IPA spoke out about his concerns for client and agency relationships in Marketing Week Magazine this week.

Priest expressed his concern over statistics from the report showing that thirty-eight per cent of agencies that took part in the survey disagreed that agency selection procurement techniques were ‘appropriate’.

This may be due to client procurement departments conducting their research and briefing process in an inexperienced manner. Some of the issues noted by agencies in the survey included: the budget not being clear upfront and lack of clarification on how many other agencies were involved in the pitch.

Importantly the IPA survey results showed over 50% of respondents, where applicable, indicated that the involvement of intermediaries was good or excellent. This is a great indicator of how a new business agency can mediate the client, agency relationship.

There’s more. The results also showed in just over two-fifths of instances there was confirmation of a new business agency also being involved in the pitch process. This evidence resounded throughout the report with one of the three Main Findings stating: ‘Positive perceptions of the pitch process ar