NORTHERN PLANNER

Back to that list. Now in many cases, the agency will be chosen for you by the client. but not always.

When it’s your job to hire the agency it’s not easy. There are LOTs, mostly competent, with similar costs. But they do vary. The best work with you as team, they listen to what you need, they know how advertising and agencies work, they keep their promises and they know who’s the researcher and who’d the planner. Those that are not so great try and do the strategy for you, or even worse, don’t do things when they say. You want to be worrying how you can use their findings, not flapping over hidden costs or worrying if the job will be done on time.

So if someone’s done a good job for you, hold on to them for dear life! Only change if you want a different kind of project doing. But if you’re starting from scratch, ask people who’d opinion you respect who they would recommend.  When yo talk to new researchers, here’s a useful checklist. Do they:

1. Listen as much as talk
2. Do they understand your project?
3. Do they understand advertising?
4. Will they get on with the client?
5. Will you enjoy working with them?

More practically, ask what their fee includes – and what it doesn’t. The first qual project I handled got me in lots of trouble, after I quoted a figure to the client, only to have to invoice a third more more wi-fi connection, viewing facility and travel expenses.

Find out how much work will be done by the senior person you’re briefing, and how much by the inexperienced trainee they haven’t told you about!

In the end, I think it comes down to people you will like working with, whom you can trust. Doesn’t everything?

And since much of this is about division of labour, we’ll be moving on to who tends to what next.