Pharma Advertising Agency Selection Checklist
A 10-point pharma and science advertising agency selection checklist.
As a pharma advertising agency, we’re fully aware of the process of attaining clients. It’s a long process that can take months. And rightly so.
If you’re a pharma organisation looking to select an agency you need to ensure that the agency you hire is right for you.
Taking time during the selection process to understand the agency (and ensure that the agency fully understands your organisation) can help safeguard the success of the project, future projects/campaigns and the health of the partnership/relationship.
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Procurement departments often have a criterion for hiring external suppliers. But, commonly, those departments need input from the departments who work with the advertising agencies. The department themselves might have to run the agency selection process.
In this case, we present a straightforward checklist to follow when looking to select an advertising agency to work alongside your teams to help you achieve the goals within your advertising plans.
10-POINT PHARMA ADVERTISING AGENCY SELECTION CHECKLIST
Before you select - or even consider selecting - your next pharma advertising agency, run through the ten points on the checklist below to determine suitability and ensure you select the right agency.
1. IDENTIFY THE KEY SERVICES
You have likely reached a point where an advertising agency is required to help you build awareness and generate leads via knowledge or experience (specific services) which your organisation or marketing team does not attain. This is usually the main need for an agency and will form the first point on this checklist.
You are required to identify the specific services required and determine if the advertising agency can offer these services to help achieve the objectives within the overall plan. Do some research on the agency website and ask appropriate questions regarding the services you require and the specific services the agency offer. Agencies might specialise in TV ads, PR, print, inbound, social media, website content amongst a range of other media types. No agency can specialise in all of them.
2. IDENTIFY THE MEDIA SPECIALISM
Advertising agencies offer a range of services per media types. We specialise in pharma media (traditional and digital) and we help with advertising and content campaigns via those media providers.
Should your marketing plan dictate that the agency is required to work on a particular media type, it’s therefore essential that you find an agency that are comfortable in this environment. You’re looking for best fit, and if the agency specialises in pharma media, for example, you might want to work with them should your plan be calling out for more collaborative content to targeted audiences with media providers and publishers.
3. DETERMINE KEY STAFF AND SKILL SET
Has anyone at the agency worked at a similar pharma organisation in the past before joining the agency? You will want to find out who will be working on the account and what their skills and track records entail. Those working with you need to have a different skill set to your current team. Also, look to see if the key staff are members of any associations or have previously collaborated with such associations.
As a secondary consideration, if the agency’s location (or the location of the staff of the agency should they operate remotely) is an important factor within your search, be sure to find out where their offices are based, their geographic territories and how they go about servicing those territories.
4. DETERMINE THE SIZE OF THE AGENCY
As well as identifying the agency staff which will work on your account, it’s also worth finding out the agency size. The size of your organisation (and budget) also comes into play when selecting choosing to work with a pharma advertising agency. So a large agency may not be a great fit for a small-scale organisation, just like a small agency might not be fully suited to a larger organisation. This is all hypothetical of course but your previous interactions with agencies and partners might shed some light on this.
Determine the size of the agency to see whether they would be a good fit for your organisation. You want to be able to contact your agency when they are needed, therefore, if the agency is large you may have several layers to get through before reaching the account lead or subject/service expert.
5. WHO ARE THEIR CLIENTS?
At this halfway point of this checklist, it’s worth turning to some specific work. Similar to the above, it’s also worth identifying the agency’s clients (both past and present) to see the types of pharma organisations they have worked with. Working with similar organisations to yours will demonstrate that the agency is familiar with your industry or sector. This means that they have performed similar campaigns aimed at similar markets and audiences, and due to this experience, increasing the chances of the campaigns being successful due to relevancy.
The agency may also be aware of your competitors and their route to market, meaning that you can better counter their movements with such extra intelligence that agencies in this industry can provide.
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6. LOOK AT PREVIOUS CAMPAIGNS
Case studies and previous campaigns reveal a lot about how the agency has worked with previous clients, and the methods/tactics used to generate results for those clients. How successful were they? It’s worth reviewing a case study or two before progressing and to understand - or at least get an overview of - a campaign and what happened before, during and after.
You can often access client case studies and testimonials via the advertising agency website or direct from a team member. (Please get in touch with me should you wish to have access to our pharma case studies.)
7. CAMPAIGN CATCH-UPS AND TRACKING
Ongoing organisation-agency communications is hugely important. We hold weekly, bi-weekly or monthly catch-up calls with our clients, on top of site visits and ongoing email communications. The main reason for this is not just to maintain a healthy working relationship, but to discuss the progress of the campaign and track its effectiveness.
You might want to catch up with your agency more or less regularly, but whatever you feel is the most appropriate, this needs to be discussed early on. If you prefer to have a weekly call but the agency prefers catching up every month, you many want to factor this into the agency selection process. In pharma, a lot happens in a short period so catching up regularly (but sometimes briefly) is advisable.
8. FEES AND RETAINERS (ESTIMATES)
You will need to discuss the financial side of the advertising agency partnership early on. Choosing the agency option that will be the most cost-effective will require you to ask some honest questions about payment structures early on. The most expensive agency may not necessarily provide the best results, and similarly, the cheapest agency may not be the least favoured option for your SMART objectives.
Present your budget and discuss how the agency can work with this budget whist also maximising the potential return on the investment. The agency will likely offer you some options which will provide an idea of what your organisation can achieve with this budget, or suggested prices based north and south of this initial budget. Ask about fee structures early on in the advertising agency selection process and leave no stone unturned.
9. GET A REFERENCE
Getting a reference for the agency is easier than you might expect. Of course, a request for a reference for a potential agency may seem strange if you are not requesting that reference direct from the agency. But a reference can easily be attainable by asking around since the pharma industry is, albeit large, tight-knit and it can reveal a lot about that agency.
If you cannot get a reference from other clients, can you ask media providers or other industry associations that might know the agency? An honest third-party reference could help you make that final decision about suitability.
10. DOES THE ADVERTISING AGENCY UNDERSTAND YOU?
At this point, having worked through this checklist for the selection of a pharma advertising agency, you will have a better understanding of potential suitors. Agencies that are better suited for your particular needs and wants, as opposed to those who may not be entirely suitable at this time. The final hurdle, before potentially meeting and discussing further, is a request for proposal. This will allow you to confirm that the agency fully understands you and your organisation. Ensure that the agency understands your organisation, it’s plan and objectives as well as the roles of your staff.
SELECTING A PHARMA ADVERTISING AGENCY
Develop a list of agencies and conduct some research on each to quickly narrow down those which you might work with. The checklist above will help during all aspects during this search and will speed up the process to get you ready for the request for proposal (RFP) stage.
Have any questions related to the above to ask us? If so, please get in touch.