• by Cory Treffiletti , Featured Contributor, May 13, 2003

"Life moves pretty fast, if you don't stop and look around once in awhile, you could miss it."

Truer words were never spoken by a wiser individual (read to the end to find out who), but in our industry these words are especially poignant. Our industry moves at light speed and sometimes we forget to take note of the simple things, and one of the simplest things we can do is to do a better job of setting expectations.

Interactive has been guilty time and time again of the sin to overpromise and underdeliver. This is due to a lack of realistic expectations being set by all parties involved, but most importantly this is the job of a good Agency.

The Agency is truly the hub of the relationship, and as in any good relationship, trust is the most important factor. The Client must trust the Agency, the Vendor must trust the Agency and the Agency must trust the Vendor. The Agency is responsible for ensuring that all sides of the equation are going to be capable of living up to expectations, and in most cases must set these expectations upfront. This requires experience, patience, and the ability to effectively convey a point of view. Here are some examples of how a good Agency can manage the expectations for both of the additional parties involved:

1. Recognize that the metrics for success must be stated clearly in the beginning of the campaign. All analysis and all decisions are to be based on these metrics. Once a campaign goes live, it can become easy to forget the initial metrics and start paying attention to click rates and conversion rates, but if Branding is the primary objective, then these metrics are not a sufficient focus.

2. If this is a test, determine clearly what you are trying to learn. Too often campaigns are negotiated as "test" campaigns and the concrete goals are not established in the eyes of both the Client and the Vendor. Be clear with the Vendor what the goals and potential outcomes are, and be sure that the Client signs off on these as well.

3. When a Planner develops a recommendation, convey clearly to the Client what potential situations may arise. A DR-centric campaign recommendation may change as much as 50% within the first month due to performance. If the Agency does a good job of setting these expectations upfront, then the Client may get blindsided with revised authorizations and revised recommendations, not knowing how to keep up.

As trust is such an important element in this relationship, we also need to acknowledge that if your Agency is doing a good job of setting expectations and educating the client on the potential situations involved with a campaign, then the Client must trust their opinion and consider weighting the outcome of the analysis to their recommendations. Too often Clients will veto recommendations from Agencies based on information that is not tangible within the parameters of a recommendation. For example, Clients have nixed sites in the past because they have never heard of a site, but unless the Client is the exact target audience for a product or service, it is very possible that they may not have heard of them. The Agencies are paid to be the experts and to know the space, and in some cases the Trust that is applied to an Agency needs to be extended to their recommendations.

As the world moves so quickly and our campaigns react dynamically to the world around us, it becomes important to pay closer attention to the fundamentals. The obvious things that we tend to overlook. In general, if you plan for the outcomes, and anticipate the changes, the trust can build. It is a variation on the old Covey-ism surrounding The Emotional Bank Account, and is extremely applicable in the "3-second" world of today.

Just ask Ferris Bueller, he knew it well before everyone else.