It’s year end!
Small gifts of chocolate, coffee and a spirit or two have been arriving at Mercer Island Group. So very thoughtful and appreciated.
Clients and agencies will often treat their partners to year end gifts large and small. It’s a lovely tradition. But what do clients and agencies really need and want from each other this year?
Here’s a list of gifts that clients and agencies can give that will really make their partners happy!
15 Gifts Clients Can Give Agencies
Most agencies would LOVE any of the following gifts from their clients:
- A better pitch process! (see below)
- Patience, kindness & assume best intent
- Fair compensation
- Enough time to do great work
- More overt appreciation of the work and effort
- Better written strategic marketing briefs
- Better strategic marketing briefings
- A client marketing team trained in how to evaluate creative, media & PR plans
- A client marketing team trained in how to deliver more effective feedback
- A client-agency 360
- Routine “top to top” calls
- More face time with decision makers
- Involvement in key discussions
- More time together away from the office and more in-person meetings
- Shared successes
If agencies want a better pitch process, they should participate in the free, confidential State of the Pitch survey (link here). Mercer Island Group has partnered with Campaign and TrinityP3 Global Marketing Consultancy to bring this important research to the US. The survey is open until January 31 for any pitch an agency participated in during 2025.
15 Gifts Agencies Can Give Clients
Most clients would LOVE any of the following gifts from their agency:
- Ways to deliver more impact for the same budget
- Help and advice on how to partner better with their C-Suite peers
- Better creative, PR and media work
- More proactivity
- Deeper customer, competitor and brand insights
- More knowledge sharing of new technologies and approaches
- Better questions
- Better trained staff
- More patience
- Greater agility
- Objectivity
- More transparency, less opaqueness & no self-dealing
- Better return on agency investments
- Shared learning from other clients
- Assumption of best intent
Bonus: Two Gifts that both Clients & Agencies Want
- Realistic expectations surrounding AI.
- A fixed digital media supply chain.
Steve Boehler, founder, and partner at Mercer Island Group has led consulting teams on behalf of clients as diverse as Ulta Beauty, Microsoft, UScellular, Nintendo, Kaiser Permanente, Holland America Line, Stop & Shop, Qualcomm, Brooks Running, and numerous others. He founded MIG after serving as a division president in a Fortune 100 when he was only 32. Earlier in his career, Steve Boehler cut his teeth with a decade in Brand Management at Procter & Gamble, leading brands like Tide, Pringles, and Jif.
Mercer Island Group helps marketers and agencies succeed. Company leadership is as much at home with marketers and their C-Suites as in an agency’s boardroom. With marketers, Mercer Island Group is a top 5 agency search consultancy covering all types of agency relationships (creative, media, web, PR, experiential) and assists marketers with marketing organization structure, workflow and critical skill development (briefing, creative evaluation & feedback, etc.). The company also supports leading and aspiring agencies with positioning, pitch and strategy training and pitch support.