As an agency search consultant for almost two decades, I hear many complaints from marketers (and agencies) about their business partners. Note the nuance here… “partners” not “partnerships.” The reality is we are in the business of relationships and relationships, whether they’re good or bad, are based on the interaction between people.

Client-agency success is centered around the importance of building a healthy relationship. The key to lasting success lies in working toward joint goals and mutual wins that drive business forward.

It takes two to build an enduring and successful client-agency relationship, meaning the process requires effort from both the client and agency. There are countless ways in which both marketers and agencies can work together to build lasting partnerships.

The agency space is constantly evolving into more diverse and complex agency operating models and more numerous remuneration approaches. As such, marketers have various models available to them when searching for a best-fit agency partner.

The ultimate goal of a PR agency is to effectively tell a story. And in today’s landscape, the best-in-class PR agencies are those that know how vital it is to shift from one-way communications to two-way (co-creation) conversations that help marketers see outcomes rather than measuring just outputs.  But finding the right agency to tell your story can be time-consuming and an all-around difficult process. Based on the agency’s connections, experience, and approach, the strategies they use can be vastly different.

The increased complexity shaping marketing, the rising focus and customer experience, significant innovation stemming from data and technological advancements (such as programmatic buys); these are just a few of the many reasons marketers have been aggressively driving the review of agency ecosystems.