This article was originally published on ANA.NET in 2023
How does in-house marketing evaluate agency performance? Should in-house marketing teams evaluate the in-house agency? If so, should the in-house agency evaluation be different or the same as your external agency evaluations?
How do you currently measure the health of your relationship with your in-house creative teams? As with any good working partnership, it's important to set expectations and monitor progress and achievements.
While some may feel setting up internal evaluations can damage the working relationship, or make the agency feel like a vendor, our position is, when done right, in-house agency evaluations drive better process, output, and ultimately a better relationship.
There are many important KPI's for the in-house team:
But in addition to these metrics, we feel that monitoring and managing the health of the working relationship with the IHA is good both in the short-term and long-term.
In the near term, the relationship assessment offers quantitative and qualitative insight into the working relationship and the opportunity to celebrate what is working well and identify where there are opportunities for improvement. In the long term, through good action planning and ownership, you can focus on improving the opportunity areas to build the working relationship.
There are many ways to leverage the current process in place for agency evaluations. Here are some of the ways the internal agency evaluation will be the same as your external agency evaluation.
IHA performance evaluations are a good best practice for in-house marketing teams who want to build and maintain healthy working relationships with the in-house creative team. After all, you do all work for the same company and share the same goals.
The views and opinions expressed are solely those of the contributor and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the ANA or imply endorsement from the ANA.
Jim Wallace, agency management and marketing operations expert at Blum Consulting Partners, Inc.
Blum Consulting Partners, Inc., specializes in process review, analysis, and implementation to maximize creative output, effective process, and efficient use of resources in the creative execution process. We work with agencies, creative content providers, marketing stakeholders, and in-house agencies, to identify and close gaps at each step of the creative process. We deliver solutions and implement procedures that help companies plan for future growth, deliver on expectations, communicate better internally and externally, and save time and money.
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