Hello and welcome back to another agency search quick tip from AAR Partners. AAR Partners is an agency search consultancy managing agency reviews for marketers since 1980.

This week we had an inquiry from a marketer asking an interesting question:

“How do you get multiple internal stakeholders in sync before starting a review?”

There have been many reviews that AAR Partners has managed where there are multiple stakeholders and constituencies that need to be involved, feel that they have a voice and have their needs met too with the new agency.

So how do you ensure that everyone’s needs are met and everyone is satisfied with the process, let alone the outcome of the review?

It’s a pretty basic answer. The way an agency needs a creative brief before putting pen to paper, the review committee must have a pitch brief detailing everything that is needed and vital for a new agency relationship to be successful. Everything from cultural questions to budget questions to marketing goals to creative expectations must be crystal clear. And most important…The entire search committee must review that brief, sign off on it and forever hold your peace. At that point, you can then begin the agency search.

There you have it. If you have a burning question about your agency search, AskAAR by posting your question on Twitter or LinkedIn but be sure to hashtag it with #AskAAR. Every other week I’m right here answering your questions.

Good luck with your agency search and if you need any guidance, think of AAR Partners! We’ve been managing agency review since 1980 and if we can help you too, we’d be delighted.