Ray Media Advisory Wants To Fix Agency-Client Relationships Before They Break

Because the company panorama consolidates and AI modifications workflows and groups, brand-agency partnerships are dealing with recent tensions. The consultancy Ray Media Advisory has launched a brand new providing to maintain these relationships wholesome earlier than they attain the purpose of no return. 

The Partnership Accelerator, accessible from at present (March 31), is a technique to proactively work on addressing pressures that may come up within the brand-client relationship early. It launches with out shoppers, however is in talks with six stakeholders from the model and company aspect. 

Doug Ray, the founding father of Ray Media Advisory, stated that almost all company relationships don’t fail in a single day; they “drift” steadily. The accelerator encourages placing in “proactive and steady” work to keep away from that.

Ray likens the connection to a automobile: when you wait until the engine breaks down, then you might have a giant drawback. “In case you do common tune ups, you may preserve your engine acting at a excessive degree,” he stated. 

He leads the initiative alongside a bunch of senior advisors, together with Donna Wiederkehr, former chief progress strategist and chief advertising and marketing officer at Dentsu, and Helen Johnsen, former international media director at Meta. Collectively, the group brings expertise spanning shopper and company aspect, together with working with manufacturers resembling Procter & Gamble, Lego, and Burberry. 

Ray and Wiederkehr reference a number of moments the place the accelerator will be useful, resembling when a shopper has a brand new group as the results of an company merger; when a CMO joins a model they usually wish to reassess the prevailing associate; or when an company has created a brand new product that hasn’t been correctly launched to a shopper.

“There may very well be group modifications, a change in ambition, new monetary pressures, or they haven’t discovered the proper artistic concept but that’s going to drive enterprise,” Wiederkehr provides. “So it’s about how will we create an setting for that to achieve success.”

Ray believes this type of service is required now greater than ever because the trade experiences “an unimaginable tempo of change,” placing strain on partnerships. Compounding which can be macro challenges from geopolitics to inflation to the proliferation of AI. “There’s simply a lot strain,” he added.

The Partnership Accelerator features a sequence of 10-12 week “sprints” that contain stakeholder diagnostics, operational and efficiency assessments, joint working periods, and a 90-day “accountability framework.” After the diagnostic is full, an motion plan is shaped.