THE BEST DOG FOR MY FIGHT

A common criticism of having more than one client in a single vertical is that it might lead to clients expressing annoyance that they don’t have the best talent working on their accounts.

This is certainly a valid argument, but it’s one that any client across an agency’s ledger could make. Why do some accounts get junior creatives and others get the best in the business?

This isn’t a new problem and shouldn’t necessarily be used to invalidate the concept of agencies working across multiple clients in the same category. It’s also questionable whether the most decorated creative is necessarily the best fit for a client.

As WPP’S Jenner points out, advertising is about people and this means it’s about putting together teams that can actually work together. If the client’s marketing team and the agency’s creative team want to murder each other on every deadline, then that relationship is going to last as long as a Don Draper fling.

DDB’S Mowday does, however, make the point that if you’re going to approach multiple clients in the same category, it’s important not to be deceptive.

“It also means if you’re pitching that you have to be upfront from day one about who’s going to work on the account,” Mowday says. “If they’re not going to get Damon [Stapleton], you don’t put him in the room.”