• Ad Age, Monday, October 26, 2009 10:43 AM

In the interests of self-perseveration, advertising agencies are staring to resist some of the heavy-handed procurement practices by marketers looking to squeeze the best deal possible when vendors are most vulnerable: during the competitive review processes. Rupal Parekh strings together some convincing examples to weave his tale, including an opening anecdote of executives from one agency emerging from a meeting at Volkswagen of America a few weeks ago and whispering to their rivals, "Don't cave."

"There has been a good deal of discussion about the over-the-top practices that have evolved in the past year, particularly," observes Tom Finneran, exec VP-agency management services at the American Association of Advertising Agencies. "There are outlandish RFPs that have been issued, some that are 300 questions, only 10 of which are related to marketing."

Some executives gripe that Group Danone's recent four-month review, which resulted in Havas' MPG retaining its U.S. business, was purely an exercise in procurement. Parekh concludes that the trend is not likely to abate and some agencies appear to welcome it, at least for the record. But Finneran says agencies should push back with RFPs of their own, saying, "'We'd love to answer the questions you've asked, but here are the questions we have for you.'"

Volkswagen, meanwhile, picked Deutsch, Los Angeles, Friday to be agency of record for its $200 million account, Jean Halliday reports. http://adage.com/agencynews/article?article_id=139952 "The decision was not based on price; the decision was based on the best agency," says Tim Ellis, VW of America's vp-marketing.

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