AGENCY SCOPE’s biennial research on trends within the marketer-agency relationships has taken to the field on a high note, as the number of participants to be interviewed has rocketed from 70 decision makers in 2016 to 500 in 2021

SCOPEN partner and CEO of the Independent Agency Search & Selection Company (IAS) Johanna McDowell says 300 of the interviewees are expected to be Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs), providing AGENCY SCOPE with “from the horse’s mouth” value for all subscribers.

“Virtual interviews will be conducted online for an hour, with a team of five professionals taking participants through the rigorous discussion and questioning that has made AGENCY SCOPE a must for its credibility,” says McDowell.

“The rapid call for digital and remote solutions and communications that the pandemic brought in 2021 means AGENCY SCOPE 2021/22 has fine-tuned our traditional questions to meet the requirements marketers will have in 2022.”

To dig deeper into what marketers are looking for in agencies and how agencies are stepping up to expectations within this altered environment, updated questions across a number of areas now include market trends, agency perception, agency performance, and what participants perceive to be the ideal agency.

Cesar Vacchiano, President and CEO of SCOPEN International, says this key information will cover an agency’s ability in strategic planning, knowledge of the market, client and brand; creativity; and professionalism.

“Many CMOs want integrated services from their creative agencies, and these agencies have evolved to attract talent in many disciplines related with BTL and digital, the latter being of prime importance right now,” says Vacchiano.

“An exciting new section of the research is quizzing more agency professionals on key factors such as talent attraction and retention. This and other core data around staffing and agency culture will enable us to produce a Best Agency to Work for framework.”

Deeper analysis to meet global conditions

McDowell notes that current global conditions have given rise to the need for deeper analysis across the industry. “In response, this fourth edition of AGENCY SCOPE will not only see marketers evaluating agencies, but the agencies rating marketers and clients.

“Within the strictest confidence, each subscribing agency will be able to identify others most likely to provide the toughest competition for them and use that information to up their game. Our post-interview analysis will provide a final report with analysis by agency profile, type of companies, stated verbatim from clients,” says McDowell.

“AGENCY SCOPE’s executive summary of the report, highlighting key data trends data from the study, will enable subscribing agencies to conduct their own evaluation of other agencies in order to set benchmarks for their own services,” Vacchiano asserts.

McDowell concludes that analysing and publishing AGENCY SCOPE fieldwork data will give rise to a SCOPEN Data Platform that enables subscribing agencies to tap into the data that they can use to set new benchmarks in this rapidly evolving industry.

“We are extremely excited to keep our subscribers in the know, at a time when the only thing we know for sure is that we need to know more.”