Precision Marketing 'Top UK Direct Marketing - Agencies Special Report'

SPECIAL REPORT: CHOOSING THE RIGHT AGENCY

In the first of an annual series, we delve into the top direct marketing award schemes to discover which agencies are picking up the most plaudits. And Michele Witthaus quizzes the clients behind the campaigns to reveal the winning ingredients.

SEVERAL TIMES EACH YEAR, all the top agencies jostle one another for the honors at award ceremonies that recognise the work that have carried out for their clients. But how often do the clients themselves get to say what inspires them to hire - and keep working with - one particular agency?

Ben Quigley is a director of Newcastle-based agency Different, which has won awards for - anti-smoking campaign for Sunderland NHS. Its 16th position in the league table belies its size and relative youth. Quigley says: 'When we kicked off in 1999, we sensed there was a gap in the market for an ideas company.'

He recalls that the market was changing so dramatically that many companies were specialising in offering particular services, such as advertising or direct marketing. 'We felt that there was an increased need among clients for a media-neutral solution that would be very cost-effective,' he says.

The idea was to overcome a common problem facing specialist agencies. Quigley says: 'They tend to operate in boxes, making it very hard for clients to get integrated solutions. What we do is take a brand across channels. We have won creativeness and effectiveness awards across a number of different platforms because we have been very successful at finding creative solutions to people's problems in various different media forms.'

Different's strategy for attracting clients in the early days involved a multi-layered business development and approach. Quigley explains: 'This included getting our industry accreditation, because that gives clients a lot of reassurance about standards. We then utilised our contacts from our previous lives to cold call a number of clients. We looked at our expertise base and linked it to clients who could be looking for that kind of service.' The agency also developed a 'virtual village' of skills that could be called in when media planning and buying, TV production, database management and brand evaluation. Quigley says that the recommendation and referrals Different derives from that network have been very important.

Being based in the north of England has also benefited the agency, resulting in cost savings, and being located away from the South-east has not been an obstacle to acquiring clients in the area. Quigley says: 'About 60 per cent of our clients are based in London and the South-east, and 40 per cent in the regions. Thanks to new technology, not many clients actually visit agency premises these days.'

Obviously, judging agencies by the amount of awards they scoop is only one way of measuring their success. And just by looking at the range of talent displayed by this year's league table entrants, from Different's hard-hitting 'Baby' image, to HTW's empathetic approach to M&G Investment's challenging brief, there are a few things which all clients seem to appreciate. One thing is apparent, though; confident agencies that are willing to be proactive and develop long-term relationships with their clients have clearly found the winning formula.