Independent or multinational agencies?

Though decision makers responsible for spending HUF 70-80 billion on advertising annually, expect creativity, flexibility and motivation from agencies, they usually choose multinational partners. Why? A survey has been conducted by Megyer Consulting and Lento Kft to find out what decision makers disposing over the largest advertising budgets think about the advantages of working with an independent agency versus those of working with a multinational agency. 100 leading executives have been interviewed. 39 out of the 100 leading executives work with both multinational and independent agencies in ATL advertising. There are 34 who work solely with independent agencies and there are 27 who work only with multinationals. Three out of four executives maintain daily contact with independent agencies as a result of ATL related tasks. 55 executives out of 100 work only with independent agencies in BTL advertising, while 37 use both types of agencies. There are only 8 who use only multinationals for BTL tasks. Out of HUF 100 of advertising expenditure, 39 is spent on media, 29 on ATL and 19 on BTL. For clients, the most important considerations in choosing an agency are creativity, flexibility, speed, strategic thinking and motivation. The three basic characteristics of independent agencies are identical to the three main priorities defined by clients, but this is not reflected in their market position. Apart from international agreements, the main reasons for this are the lack of project management and the problems occurring in connection with complex projects. The survey shows that the basic characteristics of multinationals (financial stability, good technical background and reliability) rank only 12th, 10th and 9th among client priorities. Though strategic thinking is the 4th priority for clients, nor independent or multinational agencies perform well in this regard. Independent agencies are seen as providing a better price/value ratio, while no significant difference is perceived in the level of expertise offered. 84 percent of the executives interviewed were of the opinion that the chances of independent agencies winning a contract are equal to that of multinationals.