Client Partnerships that Work

It's unfortunate that advertising creatives spend a lot of time complaining about their clients. But that's because it's unfortunate that more client-side marketing executives aren't more like Kerri Martin.

Kerri Martin began her marketing career at Harley-Davidson before moving to BMW where she oversaw BMW motorcycles and later, launched the now famously successful Mini Cooper in the U.S. After the enormous success of the Mini work, Kerri became the Director of Brand Innovation at Volkswagen in 2005. Since then, Kerri has started Goosebumps, a consulting company focused on improving the way marketers work with their agencies to create the best possible results.

For a "client," she had a lot of not-very-client-like points to make (things like "just say no to focus groups," or "efficiencies don't lead to effectiveness," and "media is creative and creative is media"). It was very interesting to hear her talk about not only some of the most celebrated advertising work of the last few years, but to hear her talk about the process, and the way things came to be through her client/agency relationship with Crispin, Porter + Bogusky.


At the core of her discussion was the notion that there needs to be such a strong relationship between a client and agency that a "third culture" is created. In this third culture, there is no longer a divide between the mentality and goals of the client and those of the agency. A sense of trust, collaboration and understanding of the business creates a new dynamic that is unique to that client and agency. How does this happen? It certainly takes commitment from both sides, but Kerri offered a few thoughts:

• A client must be willing to assess their corporate culture and adapt it to become more agile for the needs of the brand.

• An agency must immerse themselves in the brand and become a part of the brands culture. It makes it a lot easier to speak the language of a consumer when your creatives are that consumer.

• A client needs to be transparent with the agency by sharing as much as possible about their business challenges, and the agency needs to seize on that opportunity and reward the client for being open. Which leads to the final thought...

• Trust is perhaps the most important attribute of the third culture. When the client can truly trust the agency that their ideas are right for the business and for the brand, the relationship will thrive. When clients trust in the agency and are prepared to take risks together, great things can happen.