The Collaborative Teamwork Relationship:
What It Is and Why It Produces the Best Communications

On the surface, it seems that developing a relationship that produces outstanding marketing communications should be easy, especially because all participants are personally and professionally commit-ted to the same goal. However, the problems arise because the different groups of people who must work together in the creative process—marketer, account management, creative, and in interactive, technical—all bring their own perspectives to the process, and all have subjec-tive definitions of what ought to be "effective communications with which they are proud to be associated." Instead of pooling their ideas, often they are all pulling the communications in their own directions. This conflict is evident in the two extremes of how marketers and agencies can work together. When a marketer dominates the relationship, hires the agencies, pays the bills, and is ultimately accountable for the communications decisions, it feels the agency should do things its way. Obversely, when the agency dominates the relationship, as the professional communications expert, the agency feels the marketer should follow the agency's directives. Obviously, neither relationship will produce superior communications. In the first case, the marketer isn't utilizing the talent of the agency, and in the latter instance, the agency isn't utilizing the expertise of the marketer/client. The relationship producing the best communications is one that recognizes that each participant—marketer, creative, account management and technical—must be a contributor to the common goal. In this relationship, agency and marketer lines are forgotten, and it becomes a relationship of collaborative teamwork, people working together to produce a result that none could have achieved alone.

According to the 1993 Salz Survey of Advertiser-Agency Relations those marketers who believe teamwork to be very important and those agencies who perceive more teamwork in the relationship are getting and creating advertising that they rate almost 20 percent higher in quality than the ratings of other marketers and agencies. Almost 20 percent simply based on the way they work—as collaborative teams!

Everyone wants and needs to feel a part of a team. If the agency feels they're part of the client's team, the agency will put in its best efforts. It's a strong motivational force.
John A. Harding, Executive Vice President, Institute of Canadian Advertising

I would much prefer to work as a team with clients. One reason is that the more you can get into your client's head, the better understanding you have of what the real needs are, the specific nature of the marketing/advertising problem. You have a much better shot at bringing back the right answer, first time. The second reason is that if you ultimately present something creatively radical, creatively surprising, the client, having become familiar with the direction of your thinking, will be prepared for it. He or she will understand why you're proposing it, what it can do for the product in the marketplace.
Judy Teller, President, Teller Brand Positioning and Creative

Time and time again, when marketers have built a team with their agencies based on the skills we've given them in our training programs, they tell us that they can't believe the difference. They're working so much more productively. And the communications are so much better.
Ann E. Faison, Associate, Nancy L. Salz Consulting

The Team Task: The Total Process, Not Just the Ad, Letter, Brochure or Site