Marketing agency – client relationships: towards a research agenda

Keegan, Brendan James; Rowley, Jennifer; Tonge, Jane

doi:10.1108/ejm-10-2015-0712

Cited by 28 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 130 publications

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“…The context for the research is that of marketing agencies and their clients working in a co-dependent relationship. A recent literature review of the extant research on marketing agency -client relationships identified co-creation as a key theme for future research to develop stronger theoretical foundations in this area (Keegan, Rowley and Tonge, 2017).…”

Section: Agencies and Clients: A Co-creative Professional Relationshipmentioning

confidence: 99%

Resource integration for co-creation between marketing agencies and clients

Hughes

Hilton

2018

EJM

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Resource integration is a central idea within Service-Dominant Logic, but there has been little empirical research on this aspect of theory. This study explores resource integration between marketing agencies and their clients. Nine case studies were developed, using a dyadic approach, of interviewing clients and members of their agency teams. This was followed up with presentations and workshops with over 200 practitioners that validated the findings and added new perspectives. The key operant resources in the client/agency context were identified. The study suggests that resource enhancement and development, as a result of integration, is important. For agency/client research, resource integration and development brings new perspectives complementing existing relationship approaches to research. The findings have implications for relationship marketing theory across B2B contexts and the discourse of co-creation suggests a way for practitioners to discuss how to work together effectively.

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Section: Agencies and Clients: A Co-creative Professional Relationshipmentioning

confidence: 99%

Resource integration for co-creation between marketing agencies and clients

Hughes

Hilton

2018

EJM

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“…In summary, the literature on agencies and clients has recognised that the contribution of both agency and client is important in creating the end result, but this has not been addressed specifically as an example of co-creation of value. In an extensive review of the agency/client literature, Keegan, Rowley and Tonge (2017) identify an agenda for future research which includes co-creation, as a promising new direction. Keegan, Rowley and Tonge (2017) specifically mention the work on S-D Logic, as significant to this agenda.…”

Section: Hence Rq1: What Service Is Provided Between Marketing Agencimentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In an extensive review of the agency/client literature, Keegan, Rowley and Tonge (2017) identify an agenda for future research which includes co-creation, as a promising new direction. Keegan, Rowley and Tonge (2017) specifically mention the work on S-D Logic, as significant to this agenda. This article responds to this call in the light of the knowledge gap discussed above.…”

Section: Hence Rq1: What Service Is Provided Between Marketing Agencimentioning

confidence: 99%

Marketing Agency/Client Service-For-Service Provision in an Age of Digital Transformation

Hughes

2019

Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing

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Purpose: To explore changes in agency/client value co-creation, at a time when digital transformation is having a major impact on the marketing communications process. The theoretical framework of the research relates to value co-creation in service-for-service provision, a fundamental aspect of Service-Dominant Logic (S-D Logic) theory. Methodology/approach: The research was exploratory, primarily using qualitative methods. In addition, some quantitative survey data has also been included to demonstrate greater generalizability on certain key questions. Building on dyadic research with clients and their agencies, the current research includes a survey of agencies; interviews with clients and a follow up survey with clients. Findings: The nature of service-for-service provision between clients and agencies is outlined. Many aspects of service are equally likely to be internally or externally provided. This high crossover particularly relates to supporting aspects of digital marketing. While much digital marketing appears to have initially been provided externally there seems to be a trend to bring these aspects of service in-house. The views of clients and agencies on their relationship, as being either transactional or a partnership, appears to be related to the degree of service required and provided. Research implications: A service-for-service perspective is instructive in considering how changes in the external environment are impacting on what is done by agencies and what is done by clients. This new approach has potential to enhance existing relationship based research in this context. The services required by clients depend on the resources that they already possess. Therefore, it is the absence of an operant resource that leads to the need for external service provision and in turn requires co-creation. Practical implications: There are no hard and fast rules on what is provided by the agency and what is provided in-house. This relates particularly to digital aspects of marketing and suggests that the level of crossover is higher than historically. With digital media becoming such an important aspect of communicating with customers, this is particularly significant in considering the nature of the relationship between agency and client and whether it is seen as a partnership or transactional. Originality/value/contribution: Historically, the dominant approach to analysing agency/clients has been to focus on relationships. Taking a service-for-service approach is novel and relevant in analysing a context in which digitisation and media fragmentation has caused significant changes and where the perspectives of S-D Logic has the potential to provide new insights, explaining aspects that are not covered by taking purely a relationship approach. The contribution to S-D Logic is at the level of midrange theory development, through applying ideas from S-D-Logic in the context of application, helping to refine and add to the credibility of the theory. This exploration of the co-creation of value between clients ...

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“…Keller (2016) identified the challenges that clients face due to the everincreasing choice of brand touch points and proposed that client/agency relationships needed to be explored further. Keegan, Rowley, and Tonge (2017) recently produced a comprehensive literature review of client/agency relationships with an emphasis on marketing-in-practice and identified a number of future research themes. First, they call for research that generates good practice knowledge and solutions to challenging issues.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They also identify the need to reflect changing marketing communications where clients work with numerous agencies across digital, mobile, and social media platforms and to recognise the increasing role of trust in enabling the co-creation of marketing messages. This paper addresses these issues raised by Keegan et al (2017) and moves our understanding forward by examining client/agency relationships through the IMC lens.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How to achieve true integration: the impact of integrated marketing communication on the client/agency relationship

Mortimer

Laurie

2019

Journal of Marketing Management

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Reports from the advertising industry suggest that the pressure to create effective integrated campaigns across the ever-increasing mix of paid, owned and earned media is putting an enormous strain on client/agency relationships. This research identifies the main challenges that an Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) approach places on this relationship and thereby advances the IMC literature by examining the practical challenges of implementation. Six key issues, developed from academic and industry sources, are presented to advertising experts, through a Delphi study, to stimulate debate and identify areas of agreement. The findings are brought together in a model which presents three main areas that need to be addressed, along with specific recommendations. These topics include the need for clients to provide stronger leadership in defining agency roles and responsibilities, more transparent remuneration systems to encourage teamwork across agencies as well as individual input and an increased emphasis on the strategic contribution from agencies.

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Marketing agency – client relationships: towards a research agenda

Cited by 28 publications

References 130 publications

Resource integration for co-creation between marketing agencies and clients

Resource integration for co-creation between marketing agencies and clients

Marketing Agency/Client Service-For-Service Provision in an Age of Digital Transformation

How to achieve true integration: the impact of integrated marketing communication on the client/agency relationship

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