Last month I attended a Marketing Industry Network event in Birmingham, which focussed on the topic of “Agency Collaboration”. The panel used the example of the Birmingham 2018 World Cup bid, which was a fantastic example of how a group of completely different disciplined agencies came together to produce an amazing argument for the City of Birmingham.

The essence of the discussion focused on how we could get marketing agencies to work together to better serve the needs of the consumer. Lets face it, the consumer calls the shots nowadays and they are totally aware of how demanding they can be. This puts greater pressure on marketing agencies to provide a 360-degree approach.

In the past, agencies have been suspicious about sharing their ideas with other agencies and they have felt exposed to the fact that their ideas could be stolen or worse still, misused.

Today, we see more of the “ Best Creatives” coming together and sharing their knowledge across all disciplines, which makes the need for getting it right first time key, especially as more emphasis is placed on delivery.

Direct clients will inevitably get the most for their money when they present a problem to a group of vendors and they are no longer concerned with how many people are involved in the campaign as long as they get the results they require.

The challenges tend to be experienced at agency level as colleagues try to build experience around skills, which may overlap. Therefore, the best agency collaboration can be seen between agencies that respect each other’s boundaries and learn to work together towards a common goal.

Are there any agencies out there that would like to comment on their personal experiences of collaboration?

Another solid performance from the sales team in February. We had several new clients start this month and even the most veteran business development professional gets a buzz from setting that first great meeting for their new client.

Having so many new clients come on board can make life complicated so I’m glad to report the sales team have risen admirably to the challenge.

The other challenge we faced in February was a five-a-side football match against another new business agency. As the pre match hype reached fever pitch the significance of this game grew to unbelievable proportions so it was with considerable apprehension that we learned the other team was comprised of one business development guy and 4 ringers. Worse still, this five-some was actually a regular five-a-side team that play in a league every week.

I knew my guys talked a good game. As a company we punch well above our weight when it comes to knowing football trivia and I’d been treated to several beer fuelled accounts of people’s glory days on the pitch when they were younger but I was convinced a team used to playing together would soundly thrash us.

This didn’t stop us buying football kit for everyone in the company and a very gaudy trophy to be presented to the winning team.

As kick-off approached the mood among our fans was, I felt, unreasonably hopeful. This possibly owed much to the fact that the ban on drinking spirits common in the professional leagues was not being observed. Among the players on the pitch the sense of impending humiliation was palpable. But then something strange happened. As we kicked the ball around during the warm-up it became clear that there was some real talent in the team, but would we have the stamina or organisation to win a competitive match?

Actually we won convincingly. As one of the star players, the leading goal scorer, main creative force and the defensive rock from which our victory was chiselled it’s probably fairer I let someone else write the match report. What I will say is that the way we gelled together so quickly and went about our task of dismantling the opposition was phenomenal.

I’m also happy to report that the crowd were impeccably behaved despite the presence of known troublemakers. And that this Corinthian spirit continued in the pub afterwards where both teams gathered. We became more gracious in victory the more we drank….A rematch has been demanded by the opposition and we shall oblige but first we have the Alchemis Sponsored Run for Sport Relief in March.

Having been bowled over by our performance in the football match I’ll not be surprised now if this motley crew don’t churn out 4-minute miles one after the other.