Capabilities
Expert guidance from agency search to organizational and commercial consulting.
Find your perfect partners to achieve your marketing goals.
We simplify the agency search, selection, and negotiation process, helping our clients maximize their outcomes and navigate each step with ease.
Media
We see your media spend as a powerful opportunity. When invested smartly, it can give your brand a competitive edge. We’re here to guide you through the complex, shifting media landscape to ensure your brand is making the most of every platform. With innovative commercial models, we’ll help incentivize your agency to deliver maximum value for your investment.
Case Study: Delivering a Media Agency Search for a Global Quick-Service Restaurant
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A leading quick-service restaurant brand, known for its high-quality offerings, had worked with the same media agency for six years. With their audience growing younger and the QSR industry becoming more competitive, the client realized they needed a more targeted, digital-first approach to their media strategy.
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The client needed to shift their media focus from traditional channels to digital, to engage younger audiences. They also sought a partner who could offer a cost-effective, data-driven approach while maintaining a strong market presence.
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We conducted a multi-stage agency search:
RFI to 8 Agencies: We invited a mix of agencies—independents, group agencies, large, and medium-sized—to ensure a wide range of expertise.
Shortlisting 4 Agencies: Four agencies were selected for a second stage, focusing on digital expertise and strategic insight.
In-Person Briefing & Workshops: Agencies received a detailed business briefing and participated in deep dive workshops on strategy, data, tools, and technology.
Commercial Exercise: We compared agency fee proposals against market benchmarks, helping the client negotiate more favorable terms.
Final Decision & Negotiation: We supported the client through the decision process and negotiated a final agreement, including a performance-based bonus structure.
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New Agency Alignment: A new agency was selected, fully aligned with the client’s evolving digital needs.
12-Week Process: The entire process was completed in 12 weeks.
Improved Media Value: The client saw a lift in media value and more efficient targeting.
Cost Reduction: The negotiation process resulted in a reduction in total cost of ownership, enhancing ROI.
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By managing a structured agency search and negotiating favorable commercial terms, we helped the client secure a partner that met their evolving needs, delivering better media results and cost savings.
Creative Services
We understand the immense value a great creative partner can bring to your brand. We’re here to help you craft the right solutions with your agencies, aligning with your brand’s goals. Our deep knowledge of the advertising landscape ensures we’ll find a partner that’s not only a creative fit but also a strong cultural match.
Case Study: Creative Agency Search for a Leading Automotive Retailer
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A leading automotive retailer was dissatisfied with their incumbent agency due to a lack of creative innovation, cultural misalignment, and failure to engage a growing multicultural audience. They needed a new partner to revitalize their marketing strategy with a focus on digital and multicultural engagement.
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Modernize the client’s marketing strategy, particularly in digital channels.
Find an agency adept at engaging a diverse, multicultural audience.
Ensure a strong cultural fit and develop a commercially viable partnership.
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We led the search process from stakeholder interviews through to final negotiations with the selected agency.
Stakeholder Interviews & Market Review
We identified 16 agencies based on creative capabilities, digital expertise, and multicultural insights. After a review, 8 agencies were invited to participate in the RFI process.
Shortlisting & In-Person Briefing
Using a structured scorecard, 4 agencies were shortlisted. These agencies attended an in-person briefing at one of the client’s stores to gain a firsthand understanding of business operations and challenges.Workshops & Final Pitches
The client attended workshops at each agency’s office to assess their cultural fit and strategies for engaging a multicultural audience. The finalists presented their creative ideas at the client’s headquarters.Commercial Exercise & Negotiation
We analyzed each agency’s commercial proposal, benchmarking costs and value. After the client selected the agency, we negotiated a final agreement, including performance-based incentives.
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New Agency Partnership: The selected agency brought innovative, digital-first strategies and effectively addressed multicultural engagement.
Creative Revitalization: The client’s marketing was refreshed, focusing on a younger, more diverse audience.
Commercial Success: The client secured a favorable commercial agreement with performance-based bonuses.
Cultural & Multicultural Fit: The new agency demonstrated a strong cultural alignment and deep understanding of the client’s diverse audience.
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This 12-week process resulted in a creative agency partnership that addressed the client’s strategic needs and set the foundation for future success.
Advertising Production
With extensive experience across brands of all types, we expertly design tailored solutions that meet your exact needs and find the perfect fit. By elevating how your brand produces advertising, we ensure you can direct more focus and investment toward nailing the creative messaging and flawless media execution.
Case Study: Modernizing a Global Marketing Team and Engaging a Production Partner for International Campaigns
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Our client, a global audio entertainment leader, needed to modernize their marketing to support their international expansion. After restructuring their internal marketing team, we helped identify the need for an external production partner to handle culturally adapted content creation across multiple markets, focusing on transcreation, translation, and cost efficiency.
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The client required a production partner capable of managing high volumes of localized content that was culturally and linguistically adapted, while also maintaining cost efficiency. They needed to assess production quality and compare costs across potential partners for both U.S. and international markets.
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1. Modernizing the Team:
Scope and Asset Planning: We developed a clear scope for the production partner and created an annual asset list, detailing content needs for various international markets.
2. Production Partner Selection:
Transcreation and Translation Assessment: Agencies were evaluated on their ability to transcreate and translate content, ensuring cultural relevance and maintaining brand consistency.
Scalability: We assessed each agency’s ability to scale operations across multiple markets.
3. Production Test and Cost Comparison:
Test Execution: A production test was conducted, focusing on transcreation and translation for several international markets.
Quality and Cost Evaluation: Internal experts assessed the quality of the produced content, while a cost analysis allowed the client to compare partners based on value.
4. Final Selection:
Expert Feedback and Cost Analysis: The client selected the partner that offered the best combination of quality and cost efficiency, based on internal evaluations and cost comparisons.
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High-Quality Transcreation: The selected partner produced culturally relevant content, meeting the client’s standards.
Cost Savings: The cost analysis enabled the client to reduce production costs by over 20% in the first year.
Efficient Scaling: The partner was able to scale operations across diverse regions, ensuring timely delivery of assets.
Expert-Led Quality Control: Internal experts ensured the partner could consistently deliver content that resonated with local audiences.
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This approach enabled the client to scale their global marketing efforts efficiently, with a production partner adept at handling both transcreation complexity and cost-effective content production across markets.
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Dan was instrumental in helping us find an agency that aligned with our goals, brand, and global stakeholders.
He listened to our challenges, recommended suitable media agencies, coordinated preliminary interviews and final presentations, and assisted with negotiating terms. Dan was a valuable resource throughout the process and a pleasure to work with.
Mike Powell
President, Dunlop Sports America (Srixon, Cleveland) -
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Dan’s innate mix of pragmatism and humanity allow him to understand the big picture on both sides,
cut through the political noise and align on mutually beneficial solutions for the brands he represents and for their agency partners.
George Sargent
CEO, Arnold Worldwide
Repair your agency-client relationship so that it runs smoothly and efficiently.
As a third party, we can help repair the disconnect between a brand and their agency that could otherwise be hard to do on your own.
Agency Management Programs
Signing the contract with your agency is just the beginning. With our extensive experience in running agency management programs, we ensure you’re not just finding the right partner but maintaining top performance throughout the life of the partnership. We provide structured, formal processes to monitor and manage agency performance, addressing any issues before they become roadblocks.
Performance-Based Compensation
In today’s advertising landscape, aligning your agency’s incentives with your brand objectives is essential. We’ve designed and implemented numerous performance-based compensation models, and we’ll work with you and your agency to create a structure that maximizes results and strengthens collaboration.
Addressing Underperformance
When the agency relationship isn’t working, we step in with an impartial, expert view to pinpoint the root cause of the issue. Even if it leads to a parting of ways, our process helps you identify internal factors that could affect future partnerships, ensuring long-term success with your next agency.
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Dan conducts his reviews with the perfect mix of strict process and pure feel.
He has an uncanny way of knowing when to lean in and be hands-on, and when to lead with a lighter touch. Great creative work comes from strong client-agency collaboration where there is real chemistry, culture and capability fit. Dan always ensures that clients get to assess and experience all of it through his high-touch agency review process.
Tom O’Keefe
Creative Chairman, BarkleyOKRP
