Marketers are encountering a number of difficulties when working with agencies, according to a recent study from Digital Radish.
The biggest hurdle was agencies’ lack of understanding regarding the client’s ‘market, audience and business’, with 44 per cent of marketing respondents admitting it was their main challenge.
Although arguably the main hurdle, other stumbling blocks included being ‘passed on to a junior member of staff who had little understanding of the business’ (16 per cent) and ‘multiple changes to scope or budget’ (nine per cent).
However, the study revealed that 16 per cent of respondents hadn’t faced any challenges when working with an agency.
When asked about the greatest benefits of working with an agency, 45 per cent of respondents cited accessing expertise not available in their team as a major incentive.
Other perks included scope to upscale their operation (21 per cent), an influx of creative campaign ideas (14 per cent) and access to industry expertise (7 per cent).
Renaye Edwards, MD at Digital Radish, commented: “I think traditional agencies have been used to receiving a brief from a client, taking the brief and running with the creative concepts, rather than taking a step back to assess whether the approach is right.
“I think sometimes less of a brief is more: it forces the agency to do their own research to truly get under the skin of the market that they are targeting before they even get to the creative part.”