• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, August 8, 2011

Most of the marketing executives taking part in a recent survey indicated that their companies would be working with fewer advertising and marketing communications agencies in the future.

The agencies that marketers do hire will work in more collaborative ways with both their agency roster teammates and their clients. That's according to a new study from digital communications firm The Horn Group (THG) and Kelton Research.

THG commissioned Kelton to poll 265 CMOs and marketing directors in May via online surveys. The research firm also spoke at length with seven C-level marketing executives for added insights and context.

Nearly three-quarters of those who took part (70%) said they believed their firms would be working with fewer agencies within the next five years. When asked why, nearly half (49%) cited the lack of time to manage multiple agencies, while almost as many (48%) pointed to reduced budgets.

One of the executives interviewed in depth, Ram Menon, executive vice president, worldwide marketing at TIBCO, said that "when you reduce the number of agencies, you have more attention to pay to the people you have with you."

Nearly 90% of the survey respondents said that agencies are more likely to work together on specific projects and not on a regular basis. But just over one-third indicated that agencies that do focus on collaboration are most likely to ensure a "seamless multi-agency approach."

While marketers wish their agencies would always work well together, close to two-thirds (62%) said they had experienced more "poor" agency integration than "great" agency integration. More often than not, marketers acknowledged, the problem was on their companies' end, not the agencies'. Over half (55%) cited internal factors as a bigger roadblock to achieving effective cooperation among their roster shops.

While the study indicated that most marketers want their agencies leading the charge on change, only 3% of the respondents said their shops were leaders on the innovation front.

Another executive interviewed at length for the study, George Galinsky, vice president of marketing communications for Mohegan Sun, said: "We went into review once because we grew tired of the agency just executing, and not providing enough innovation. We felt like we were pushing the agency at all times."

Two-thirds of those polled said they preferred to work with specialists versus full-service shops. "Some skepticism still exists about the ability to deliver across a wide range of needs," the study concluded, adding that 60% of the marketers participating in the survey said finding a "true full-service shop was difficult."