Why Do Brands Ghost Agencies?

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This blog was written by Setup President, Amanda Thompson. With over 25 years of experience serving on the agency (DEFINITION 6, Slalom Consulting, Dachis Group) and client (The Coca-Cola Company, Web.com) sides, Amanda has dedicated her career to transforming marketing education programs, building social business strategies, and spearheading communications efforts for established brands like Coca-Cola, Starbucks, BIC, The Home Depot, and Michaels Stores. Amanda’s extensive experience in the marketing world gives her a unique perspective to serve Setup’s agency partners and solve pain points for clients.

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What do I mean when I say Brands are ghosting Agencies? 

Urban Dictionary defines ghosting:

“When a person cuts off all communication with their friends or the person they're dating, with zero warning or notice beforehand. You'll mostly see them avoiding friend's phone calls, social media, and avoiding them in public.” 

Although the phrase originally referred to interpersonal relationships such as romantic partners or friends, the phrase has expanded into the corporate sphere because people are still people whether they’re at work or not.

The Impact of Ghosting an Agency

In my career, I have worked on business development at agencies and consultancies, so I am the one selling my company’s services to potential clients. Have I ever been ghosted by a prospective client? Yes. I have also worked client-side and hired various marketing agencies and vendors. Have I ever ghosted a potential agency or vendor? No, I have not. And why not? 

First, it is rude (there is a person on the other end after all). Secondly, I know the true impact of ghosting an agency (resources, money, time - all wasted).

Depending on the type of pitch, an agency can pour a lot of resources into winning the business of a new client. For a standard Agency of Record (AOR) or long-term project pitch, the effort lasts around three months and uses a plethora of resources from different departments - strategy, creative, business development, account services, production, research, etc. These teams work together to understand the client’s situation and needs, and then create a compelling response. They come up with ideas. They create project plans and staffing plans and timelines. Sometimes they create (spec) designs to show how their ideas would manifest in the client’s marketing efforts. None of this work is billable, and often that means the agency staff puts in time during evenings and weekends to meet the deadlines. If there are in-person chemistry checks or pitch presentations, the agency pays for their team’s travel.

In order to create a compelling pitch, the agency team invests in the project - for the possibility of doing amazing things for the client if they are selected. They have to compete against other qualified agencies, and they often give it their all. It’s galvanizing and can be fun to work on landing that new, amazing client, but comes with a lot of risk. 

So, when a brand ghosts an agency after months of hard work, it is not only a financial burden to the agency, but it is often a morale killer, negatively impacting the team that worked so hard on the pitch and got truly excited, envisioning all the ways they could help that client. It’s hard to spin up motivation, productivity, and care in a team after taking a hit like that.

Why Brands Ghost Agencies

Why do Brands sometimes ghost? I can identify some universal truths here. Providing feedback can be uncomfortable, and people don’t like to have difficult conversations. It is certainly harder than doing nothing at all. Perhaps the client team could not agree internally on the right direction/which agency to hire, so they decided not to go forward with the project at all, and since they decided to do nothing, they also decided to communicate nothing. Another possibility is that people working for clients and hiring marketing agencies have not been properly trained for appropriate business etiquette or for handling difficult situations. Sometimes the client has chosen an agency, but fails to communicate with the runners-up.

Why Brands Should Not Ghost Agencies

Loss of Potential: If you’re a client and you’ve spoken with several agencies and/or run a pitch process, but then you don’t see the pitch through, or you hire an agency but opt to not communicate with the other agencies involved, you could be missing opportunities for your brand and business. When you abruptly stop communication, you may not have a complete understanding of the agency's services, strategies, or the ways they could help you achieve your marketing objectives. This can lead to lost opportunities for collaboration and growth.

Reputation: Ghosting an agency can damage your reputation as a client. The marketing industry is well connected, and people talk. If word gets around that you tend to ghost agencies, your pool of talented agencies in the future will be smaller, as some agencies will choose not to pursue your business knowing it is likely a waste of time.

How Agencies can (try to) Avoid being Ghosted

In any pitch, the likelihood is high that your agency will not be selected, so do not forget the importance of establishing a solid relationship with that client that ideally goes beyond the specific project at hand. 

Go through the pitch process in an organized fashion (always meet due dates, deliver relevant thinking, answer questions thoughtfully, etc.), but aim to build chemistry simultaneously. Share articles/videos/insights that might interest them, stay in touch in between deadlines, and generally treat the client as a human that you’re interested in (ideally this feeling is genuine!). Take note of how the client communicates, and aim to meet their pacing and style.

If you go into a new opportunity with the goal of building a new relationship while pitching for new business, and you answer RFI/RFP questions thoughtfully and on time, then you can feel good about the impression you will leave. If you do get ghosted, you are not the problem. 

What’s the Solution to Ghosting?

We all know that it is difficult/impossible to control other people’s actions and behavior. But I will leave you with these few ideas that keep ghosting from occurring:

• Focus on relationship building. The deeper a bond you form with the people on the other side (client or agency), the harder it will be for them to ghost you.

• Be a better human. Remember that we do business with people, not with companies. People deserve to be treated with respect. Think about how you have felt when you were ghosted by a friend, a romantic partner, or a business colleague. Not great, right? So think about the other people involved in your business decisions. And if you owe them a reply, please show some common courtesy and send that email.

• Report bad behavior. If your agency is ghosted by a client, talk about it. Be sure your entire agency knows what happened. When you meet up with industry colleagues (agency or client-side), share your experience.

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Business can be difficult. Communicating business decisions can be difficult. So in the spirit of forging better relationships across the board, go ahead and be honest with your business colleagues and potential partners, treating them as humans, and leaving no one confused and in the dark.