PARTNERS IN TRANSPARENCY:

THE NEW BRAND + AGENCY

RELATIONSHIP
A BOOK TO INSPIRE AND GUIDE BRANDS
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REINVENTING THE
BRAND + AGENCY RELATIONSHIP
Brands love and need agencies. They are key partners. But we need to make
sure agencies are always working with our best interests in mind. And we need to
be able to measure their performance better so we know that we’re spending our
money wisely.

We also need to own our data no matter what—it’s our asset! We don’t have to
become analytics experts or pull analytics completely in house. But we can more
closely monitor, track and measure agency performance and manage our spend.

It’s time to establish transparent and successful partnerships with our agencies.
The way we work with them will change, but less than we might think—and it’s
a win-win for all involved.

Let’s explore this new world!

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THE NEW WORLD

OLD WORLD NEW WORLD

Brands actively partner with agencies on planning, strategy,

Brands outsource planning and strategy to agencies
optimization.

Lack of transparency—agencies are a black box Full visibility into cost, execution and effectiveness of media plans

Brands must ask agencies for reports (and pay for them) Automated dashboards available 24/7

Messy data and slow, channel-based reporting prevent Clean, trusted data and real-time, omnichannel reporting enable
timely insight timely insight.

Brands and agencies have self-serve, drill-down access to the

Agency reports are flat files and PowerPoints
source of truth for marketing data + insight.

Brands + agencies discuss what’s working and not working, and

Agencies only report on what worked best
optimize accordingly

Consistent reporting framework for easy comparisons across

Different reporting frameworks across campaigns and agencies
campaigns and agencies

Agencies “grade their own homework” Agencies report against brand KPIs that reflect business objectives

Agencies lack sales and other brand data, making analytics Agencies can access sales and other brand data for comprehensive
and insight less useful analytics and insight
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THE STORY
Agencies are responsible for so much spend. Yet from a brand’s perspective, the
relationship often feels like a black box. Agencies typically share very little data.
When they do, the reports are sometimes finessed, and often arrive too late to act on.

Further, when agencies report on their own performance, everything seems to be

going great. But is that so? (A classic example: The business is performing worse
and worse yet the charts in the agency reports are all up and to the right.)

It’s time for brands and agencies to have transparent, mutually beneficial partnerships
around data, reporting and strategic thinking, working together to find solutions that
make the most of every marketing dollar.

Beckon is the breakthrough technology that makes this possible. Beckon is the source
of truth for data + insight—an integrated, clean, normalized marketing performance
dataset and the reports it fuels.

When a brand has a source of truth, it no longer has to rely on agencies grading their
own homework. Instead, the brand and its agencies enjoy clear visibility, consistent
KPIs, and clean, trusted data and reports.
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10 BRAND
10 BRAND BENEFITS
BENEFITS
1. All media spend and performance (planned and
1. All media spend and performance (planned
actual) flow into a brand-owned data hub
and actual) flow into a brand-owned data hub
2. Technology does all the heavy lifting and provides
2. Technology does all the heavy lifting and
clean, trusted data.
provides clean, trusted data.
3. See at a glance what data is in and what’s missing—
3. See at a glance what data is in and what’s
agencies are automatically prompted to fill any holes.
missing—agencies are automatically prompted
to fill any holes.
4. Compare performance across campaigns and
agencies apples-to-apples.
4. Compare performance across campaigns
and agencies apples-to-apples.
5. Success metrics show business impact and
progress against brand goals.
5. Success metrics show business impact and
progress against brand goals.
6. Full transparency into agency reports, analytics
6. Full transparency into agency reports,
and performance.
analytics and performance.
7. Continuously updated dashboards and scorecards
7. Continuously updated dashboards and
make clear what’s working across it all.
scorecards make clear what’s working
across it all.
8. Drill down into the data to see exactly what’s
driving performance, to do more of what’s working
8. Drill down into the data to see exactly
and less of what’s not.
what’s driving performance, to do more of
what’s working and less of what’s not.
9. Fast reporting, analysis and optimization cycles.
9. Fast reporting, analysis and optimization cycles.
10. Save money on agency reports and retainers—
simply create new dashboards and scorecards
10. Save money on agency reports and
as the need arises.
retainers—simply create new dashboards
and scorecards as the need arises.
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10 AGENCY BENEFITS
1. Automated data clean-up and integration—no 6. Consistent reporting frameworks—no more
more cut-and-paste! guesswork about what to report on.

2. Access to sales data, brand equity data and more 7. Align performance against brand goals and
enables “total picture” reporting. objectives.

3. Drill-down access to omnichannel dashboards, 8. Tell the full story of campaign performance
scorecards and data exploration tools for agile with trusted data, rich media and the voice
decision-making. of the customer.

4. Focus on analysis and recommendations instead 9. Be a leader in transparency, accountability and

of wrangling messy data. data access.

5. Fast reporting, analysis and optimization cycles. 10. Build long-term, strategic partnerships with brands
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CHALLENGES (AND REWARDS)
Getting to a partnership that’s transparent and
cooperative to this degree requires change. Brand
roles and responsibilities change. Agencies are asked
to change how they report performance—and in some
cases, give up reporting responsibility altogether.
Agencies may initially feel threatened. Address these
concerns proactively. Approach this as an opportunity
to strengthen the relationship—we’re going from good
to better! Agencies are our partners. Let’s work with
them to use data + insight to add value on both sides.
For brands, too, it’s a transition. Many brands decide to
get more involved in analytics and reporting. You may
need to bring new skill sets and capabilities in house.
And access to data you’ve never had before may reveal
smarter ways to invest your dollars and resources.
Be open about the issues, but stay focused on the
opportunities. It’s a chance to build a data-driven
culture, and a team that partners with your agencies
to continually test, learn and improve.
As the process is established and wins are notched,
the benefits, efficiencies and easy access to clean,
trusted data will win out, and the new relationship
will become part of the culture on both sides.
How can we say so? Because we’ve been through
this many times before. Beckon has helped some
of the world’s biggest brands establish transparent
partnerships with their agencies, helping both parties
leap forward on the wings of a source of truth for
marketing data + insight.
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HOW BECKON MAKES IT HAPPEN

• Beckon works directly with your agency partners (or through the brand if
you prefer) to understand how your data is sourced, integrated and tagged.

• Then, we automate data management per your business rules, connecting

directly to the data sources.

• We integrate, cleanse, normalize and objectively maintain all your marketing

data—including agency data—and make it available for real-time analysis +
reporting via simple, self-serve dashboards, scorecards and data
exploration tools.

• We help you establish KPIs and agency reports that map media
performance directly to your business objectives.

• We arm you with the right business questions as you partner with your
agencies to ensure that campaigns are on track and spend is
allocated wisely.
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• These dashboards, tools, KPIs, reports and business questions provide

omnichannel visibility into performance, so you and your agencies can make
agile decisions and move spend from low performers to high performers on
the fly.

• Because we hold both your KPIs and sales data, we’re able to calculate
effectiveness ratios between the two consistently. These ratios serve as leading
indicators of marketing performance as well as early warning signs. (Issues like
Facebook charging for 100x the impressions actually served would be noticed
immediately, when effectiveness rates suddenly drop by 100x.)

• We let you share sales outcomes and other important data in any way you
deem fit—all the way down to the level of individual metrics! (You can restrict
any data you like as well.) Your agencies can finally have access to all the brand
data they need to drive performance against your strategic objectives.
GET STARTED
Download 6 Steps to a Transparent Brand + Agency Partnership
Get our roadmap to a win-win relationship built on clean data,
trusted insight and maximum growth. Includes quotes and
examples from brands that have made the journey.

LET’S TALK
We’d love to talk with you about best practices for agency
management—your current situation, what’s possible, and how
to get there. Get in touch at hello@beckon.com