SCOPEN has just finished a new wave of their AGENCY SCOPE Study in collaboration with R3, a renowned global marketing consultancy in China. COVID-19 has accelerated processes, with one of the most relevant changes being marketers’ commitment to Innovation and Digital Transformation. “Being closer to Digital Platforms will help agencies to be perceived as companies better prepared to work with brands” says César Vacchiano, president and CEO at SCOPEN, ”Competition is high, and all strategies that help marketers to reinforce the position of their brand and connect with their audiences, will help enormously when it comes to retaining clients, and winning new accounts”.
AGENCY SCOPE CHINA 2021/22 is the ninth edition of the study in the country, which is also conducted in 11 other markets, enabling us to include global benchmarks in key criteria. In this edition, we interviewed 396 professionals from 208 leading companies that operate in the Chinese market with 670 client-agency relationships analyzed. The fieldwork took place between August and December 2021.
The primary value of AGENCY SCOPE is to provide subscribing agencies, and other communication partners, with first-hand information regarding the needs of their existing and prospective clients. This report provides them a unique tool to improve and supply new services as it covers the main findings and trends in the communication and marketing sector and more specifically, the perception and image of their company in comparison to all other agencies and communication partners that Chinese marketing professionals work with.
Marketers search for specialists in different territories
Marketing professionals interviewed distribute their marketing budget in China as follows: more than half (53.2%) is invested in ‘Brand Building Campaigns’, while the rest (48.8%) is invested in ‘Transaction Driven Activities’ (Performance). Figures are similar when split by size of company (Multinational and Locally Based).
When we asked marketing professionals what type of agency they are currently working with to meet their communication needs, we found that 82.2% of the respondents currently work with ‘Specialised agencies’ in each discipline, 15.6% work with an ‘Integrated agency’, and 2.2% work with a ‘Customised service team/agency by a holding group company’. As for the near future, the figures show a similar trend.
China has a similar profile when compared to other markets such as Mexico, UK, and South Africa (globally 49% of Marketing professionals prefer to work with Specialists and 51% with an Integrated agency), where specialisation is rising year over year “one of the main explanations for this trend is a complex and changeable environment full of new digital and data options which necessitates working with specialists” says Vacchiano.
On average, an advertiser in China works with 25.6 different partners to solve all its marketing-communication needs. Digital Platforms (9.1), Field Marketing Agencies (3.9), Digital & Social Agencies (3.8), IMC Agencies (3.5), Media Agencies (1.8), PR Agencies (1.8) and Divisions of Consultancies (1.7).
Besides, 38.5% of marketing professionals have declared that one of their current creative or media agencies leads all their communication needs. This figure has increased compared to the previous edition of the study (20.7% in 2020). Despite this growth, China is placed below the global benchmark (55.4%). In other countries, such as the UK and South Africa, commitment to leading agencies is higher.
China is the market in which advertisers tend to work with most partners. The more partners you have, the more complex coordination and leadership gets. In China, almost 4 out of 10 marketers (a figure that has doubled in the last two years) identify one of their agencies (creative or media) as the leader of their communication-advertising-marketing
Strategic planning, integrated services, creativity-innovation, and data are key
For marketers, ‘Strategic Planning’, ‘Integrated services offering’ and, ‘Creativity-Innovation’ are the 3 most mentioned attributes to define the ideal creative agency, followed by an expert ‘Professional team’ and the ‘Agency’s previous experience and expertise’. In comparison to the previous edition (2020), mentions for ‘Good professional team’, ‘Agency’s previous experience and expertise’, ‘Research, Data, Tools’, ‘Branded Content expertise’, ‘Digital capabilities’ and, ‘Good value for money / Reasonable Fee’ have increased.
Media agencies stand out in ‘Media Planning’, ‘Negotiation capabilities / Good prices’, ‘Research, Data, Tools’, and ‘Strategic Planning’. When compared to 2020, ‘Media Planning’ and ‘Good value for money / Reasonable Fee’ have increased.
More than ever, ‘Strategic Planning’ and ‘Data’ are key to enable marketing professionals to differentiate their brand/company from competitors to reach more evolved, informed, and demanding consumers. Agencies must meet this creative challenge by offering more and better ideas that communicate with impact.
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