Are agencies ready for the recession?

As the credit crunch starts to bite there are stories emerging of job losses, agencies closing or looking for merger opportunities.

But it still appears that some agencies have not woken up to this reality and seem content with top heavy management, slow and inflexible processes, unrealistic creative, and a lack of analysis.

Agencies that seem to have abandoned the fundamental disciplines of proposition-driven creativity, targeting, testing, and ROI strategies that are so attractive to brands as we enter recession.

Even some of the pure-play digital agencies do not seem to have mastered the disciplines required to turn their technical skills into effective customer communications.

So how should an agency prepare for recession? As important as keeping costs under control, isn’t it commonsense that in a recession clients look for ROI and quick gains?

Now is the time to move more customers online and to be smarter with data and analytics in order to hone targeting and messaging. A time to test and use the results to establish why some ideas work better than others, and then to apply those learnings. A time to focus on propositions and benefits, and to show brands how we can improve their results for less than they currently spend.