I sat in a room with a big global IT vendor last December who I really like; in fact, everyone loves this brand, it’s been scientifically proven. Also as potential clients go for Dapster, you couldn’t order a more perfect example on Amazon Prime.
I’d been invited in because they had some partner marketing funds which were about to go South, and not geographically. In simple terms, unless that particular piece of the budget was allocated, those funds would be wiped out, history, written off, never to be seen again.
I almost cried and I haven’t done that out loud since I was 12 years old (if we’re excluding my vasectomy…but that was a rather messy end to a very healthy long-term partnership, so it doesn’t count). But sat there, watching all that opportunity put out to pasture because a decision couldn’t be made quickly enough was awful. To the extent that face-palming myself right there at the table, was the only appropriate professional response I could muster.
Admittedly it didn’t help that the budget being written off was an eye-watering amount of money. I mean there were comma’s and zero’s in abundance; it wouldn’t have looked out of place on one of those big ‘Children in Need’ cheques being flaunted by Pudsey.
What the MDF?
Now, since time immemorial, the use of marketing and distribution funds have tugged vicariously at the relationships between the Vendor and Channel Partners respectively. Who should get them in the first place? How were they being used? Were they being used at all? Why didn’t both parties see the return they expected? Oh, and my personal favourite, where did all the money go?
It’s a dysfunctional arrangement that should “in theory” work beautifully. The trouble is, like with any long-term relationship, it’s seen its fair share of challenges; some trust has been misplaced and both parties thinks the other one has let themselves go.
The Vendors have grown weary of throwing cash into campaigns that don’t yield a return, but the money still needs to be spent. So, budgets are typically allocated to the top tier partners, a little less to the ‘up-and-coming’ chaps and practically the square route of bugger all to the niche, often highly skilled partners.
The same cookie-cutter marketing material (seemingly designed to induce instant narcolepsy with their already propaganda-drunk audience) is passed on and budget is bestowed with the underlying fear that at least some of the money is going onto the Partners bottom line rather than on the campaign itself….although, I’m sure that’s never happened…ahem.
Then there are the Channel Partner’s, who are equally bored of being asked to sell a ‘red one’ on Monday and a ‘blue one’ on Tuesday. Mainly because there’s little-to-no opportunity to position their own credibility or value that they can bring to the table. So guess what? It’s unlikely they’re going to get excited by it, let alone execute it.
And then there are the Agencies, stuck somewhere in the middle, the poor b*stards.
If the previous campaign was deemed not to deliver, the existing Agency will be wheeled in, given crap machine-coffee, served with a side-dish of a virtual kicking. Then a new team will be invited in, the posh coffee and biscuits will be given ‘a one-time-only-airing’, just before they’re given the same criteria, with the same flaky outcomes, where they too can enjoy all the benefits of being set up to fail.
No matter how talented the Agency is, given the same gift-wrapped-sh*t sandwich of a model proven to fail, they too will get swapped out faster than a Leicester City Manager when the wheels inevitably fall off.
The reality is, I’m yet to sit in one of those meetings where this simple ‘pitch’ hasn’t solved the problem. Leaving me with just 99 to solve, which is a relief.
1) Love you long-term
Part of the MDF issue is that the engagement, the numbers, the success criteria – is all too short-lived and before you swear at the screen, I get it. There are monthly targets that need to be hit but rarely (and I do mean rarely) is the world solved in 4 weeks from scratch.
A marketing agency is like every other business. If they feel they’re on a stay of execution from day one, you’ll only get a half-arsed engagement and the MDF circle of sh*te will continue to flourish.
However, if you make the Agency integral to the strategy and measurement for both the Vendor and the partner(s) over a reasonable period of time, then you’re really in it together.
For a quantifiable result, each party needs to dispense with the foreplay, share their long-term numbers and personal KPI’s transparently and you’ll find very quickly, the behaviour, activity and quality of the output changes dramatically.
2) Shared risk changes everything
Everyone talks a good game in meetings but if you’re going to share risk and benefits, they need to make their way into a written agreement, then you either succeed or fail together. It’s the difference between saying you’ll stand shoulder-to-shoulder and actually doing it.
The Vendor, Partner(s) and the Agency all need to be working toward the same outcome. Just because you have different logos on your business card and walk around on different bits of carpet each day, doesn’t mean you can’t be a team (crikey, if I win an award for this blog, that bad-boy is going straight in the acceptance speech).
There will be those that say this approach is already alive, well and working but I can tell you it’s not. I’ve worked with a lot of big brands and sat in my share of meetings where budget is either p*ssed away or written off and I’m yet to decide which is worse to witness.
In so many other areas of technology, progressive collaboration is on the rise and archaic engagements are being unceremoniously wiped off the face of the agenda and rightly so.
Now more than ever, MDF needs to hop on the collaborative band wagon with the promise of a fresh approach from ‘everyone’ involved; That means a sensible long-term view with agreed shared risk and outcomes across the board, with no excuses and no place to hide.
Otherwise, you too can look forward to me crying real-man tears, coming soon to a meeting room near you.