Advertiser Perceptions has released some interesting new data looking at the criteria that marketers and agencies evaluate when selecting a large multi-brand media company to advertise with. The survey asked respondents to rate the importance of a variety of factors as they relate to dealing with large media companies, finding some differences between agencies and marketers. Of note: ad results have declined as a key component of the decision-making process.
Three-quarters of respondents (76% of agencies and 72% of marketers) feel that ad results are important (top-2 box score on a 5-point scale of importance) when dealing with large media companies (such as Time, rather than one of its individual brands). That’s down 10% points from last year’s survey, though.
In fact, a number of criteria appear to be more important to respondents than ad results. For agencies, the top factors considered are customer service (80%) and an understanding of their business (77%). Many also point to aggressive rate deals (76%), ease of doing business (76%) and quality audience practices (76%) – on par with the proportion looking at ad resutls.
For marketers, aggressive rate deals (77%) and ease of doing business (77%) rank as the most important factors, followed by understanding of their business (75%), ad results (72%) and quality audience practices (69%).
While the rankings may differ slightly, marketers and agencies tend to share many of the same top criteria when evaluating large multi-media brands. Even so, they do appear to differ on some factors. For example, while 7 in 10 agencies consider integrated media buys important, only 54% of marketers agree. Similarly, marketing partnerships (68% vs. 57%) and multi-media offerings (64% vs. 54%) appear more important to agencies.
Looking at trends in selection criteria, the researchers note that integrated media buys have become more important to advertisers, while customer service, having a single point of contact, and marketing partnerships have become less important.
