Using diagnosis not prescription
to secure marketing budgets

We were recently asked our POV on how internal marketing teams can build a strong case to use external creative agency support.

We believe the focus should be on early collaboration, helping clearly define the brand ambitions and metrics for success. Outline what success looks like in the next few months, the next year, and three years ahead. And be transparent about the levels of risk the brand is willing to take to achieve them.

In our experience, agencies can assist most by working collaboratively to diagnose the challenges, not just be parachuted in to help crack the answer.

When exploring any problem, there are always real challenges in self-diagnosis (Dr Google anyone), and it is the outside perspective that can bring just that – perspective.

It is often a lot easier for an outsider (particularly an expert one) to ask the ‘stupid’ questions. After all it would take a pretty confident client-side marketer to ask their board what they sell. But it is these types of questions which can often lead to the most fundamental improvements.

Through collaboration, agencies can challenge and explore what areas of insight are robust and what are lacking to be able to confidently approach the task at hand. We find there is often a chink in the insight armour – especially in the ever-changing rational and irrational behavioural traits of the consumer.

We’ve built this into our system, we call it a ‘Confidence Quotient’ and it measures the confidence of the insight a brand has and potential gaps to fill across a number of key criteria.

By identifying these potential insight gaps and how to frame measurable success and metrics that matter, we help marketing teams ensure strategies have a solid foundation. Demonstrating the magnitude of the challenge ahead and illustrating potential success outcome in commercial terms.

And when we get it right with our clients, it can increase funding potential with their Exec. Marketing planning built on big picture thinking, less assumptions and more certainty.

Diagnose before you rush to prescribe.

And ask your agency to help make the case to the board with you.

Keen to find out more about our Confidence Quotient? Give us a shout!