Take advantage of our
COMPREHENSIVE EXPERTISE.
Our Services
From agency selection to agency management.
AGENCY SCAN helps marketing directors and executives and marketing services procurement managers with all aspects of agency management. These include:
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Agency selection in all communication categories such as ATL, BTL, strategy and media
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Agency cost negotiations in all communication categories
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Agency contract content
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Agency pools/rosters and agency models
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Ways of working and annual agency reviews
Our clients span medium-sized companies as well as large corporations and public bodies. AGENCY SCAN offers consultancy services all over the world, with around 50% of our assignments originating in Germany.
Classic / Media / Web / Shopper / Marketing / Strategy / Design / POS / Digital / CD / Online / Social Media / CSR / PR / CI / Corporate Publishing / Employer Branding / New Product Development / Direct Marketing / Marketing Suppliers
Agency selection
AGENCY SCAN advises and supports clients from the global marketing and marketing procurement sectors in the structured search for communication agencies in the areas of
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ATL (e.g classic advertising)
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BTL (e.g. design, POS, web, PR, social media) strategy (e.g. marketing strategy)
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Strategy (e.g. marketing strategy, CSR strategy, brand positioning)
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Media (e.g. media planning, media buying)
AGENCY SCAN offers its clients the expertise of the global creative services procurement managers, international marketers and European and Asian agency directors who united forces to lay the foundations of AGENCY SCAN. And they’ve enjoyed considerable success – in 9 out of 10 of our selection processes, the perfect agency partner is already chosen after the chemistry meeting.
AGENCY SCAN does not advise agencies, meaning it is free to offer its clients completely unbiased and impartial assistance.
Pitch consulting
An agency pitch is a structured agency selection process. A shortlist of agencies is pre-selected and given a task to complete. The agency that provides the best solution, as judged against pre-defined criteria, wins the contract.
AGENCY SCAN organises national, European and global pitches in all communication categories. This includes:
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Agency shortlisting
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Task creation
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Agency briefing
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Development of structured assessment criteria
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Organisation of pitch and pitch day
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Chairing the application process
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Transparent & reliable selection
The pitch process culminates in the creation of a new agency relationship. Collaboration that clicks. Expertly created with all costs checked and fully documented in complete compliance with all audit requirements.
EU tenders
Companies that are subject to tendering, public institutions and associations have to comply with complex legal requirements. AGENCY SCAN organises public tenders with the aim of finding the agency that best fits the marketing client’s requirements despite widely varying procedural regulations. To ensure this, we are supported by our own in-house lawyer for public procurement law.
All public tender services provided by AGENCY SCAN are always carried out with utmost transparency in compliance with all audit requirements. These include:
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Preparation of the tender together with the contracting authority
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Publication and organisation including schedule management
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Service description wording in a comprehensible language for agencies
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Preparation of tender documents, assessment criteria and briefing
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Completeness and suitability examinations
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Organisation of an agency pitch Remuneration and contract negotiations
The pitch process ends with the creation of a new agency relationship. In accordance with the tender terms, expertly prepared with all costs checked and fully documented in complete compliance with all audit requirements.
Condition negotiations
What do specific advertising measures cost? How much is a design relaunch? Is it still customary to charge a percentage fee for third-party services? When does the Lopez effect come into play? How can a client know if an agency cost estimate is fair?
AGENCY SCAN is the only pitch consulting company that offers clients its own international creative services procurement, allowing them to take advantage of the experience gathered through more than 7,500 agency cost estimate checks.
The services are:
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Cost estimate checks to ensure content coherence
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Cost estimate checks to ensure plausibility of calculations
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Development of negotiation strategies for the client
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Cost estimate negotiation with agencies on behalf of the client
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Assessment of the cost-performance ratio of agency services
During cost negotiations with agencies, AGENCY SCAN is firmly committed to securing the best price for a predefined service and quality standard.
Remuneration & contract
An agency contract drawn up by a lawyer defines the rules that govern the business relationship between the client and the agency. However, it is also essential for an agency contract to clearly define the communication services to be provided and the remuneration to be paid in return. The conditions and practices of the communication industry need to be considered, too. These crucial factors are often ignored, which is why purely legal agreements are regularly shown to be inadequate in the event of a dispute.
AGENCY SCAN provides contractual advice in the following areas:
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Definition of services to be provided
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Copyright issues
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Inclusion of third parties in the provision of services
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Practices in the creative industry, chains of evidence, parallel creation
AGENCY SCAN offers legal and contract advice in all countries in which there is no monopoly on legal advice. Since such a monopoly exists in Germany, AGENCY SCAN can provide advice on contractual terms but not their legal wording.
Agency models
Large communication projects often require a wide ensemble of agencies. In such cases, one of the key tasks is to ensure that the brand message is consistently communicated at all customer touch points. This requires the definition of an agency model to specify who is responsible for developing the brand message and how it is disseminated through the specialist agencies.
AGENCY SCAN advises clients in the following areas:
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Agency models
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Agency pools/rosters
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Communication expert engines
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Agency models
AGENCY SCAN adopts a customised approach to every client and agency model under close consideration of the specific communication requirements, scope, current situation and desired target situation.
Ways of working
‘Ways of working’ define how clients and agencies work together. Efficient agency collaboration means targets are achieved quicker and with a lower budget. Better ways of working increase the client’s speed to market whilst simultaneously optimising budget utilisation.
AGENCY SCAN advises clients in the areas of
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How to brief an agency Annual agency reviews Appraisal processes
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Agency evaluations
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Training courses and seminars on ways of working
Good working methods demonstrably enhance brand success and noticeably reduce workloads for marketing managers.
Marketing procurement service
For projects relating to marketing procurement, AGENCY SCAN offers a portfolio of consulting services that are precisely tailored to the needs of procurement managers. AGENCY SCAN assists national and global marketing procurement managers with:
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Agency search and selection
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Price negotiations, cost estimate controlling and rate cards
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Structured annual agency reviews Agency models
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Agency contract drafting
AGENCY SCAN supports procurement clients as a consultant and sparring partner. AGENCY SCAN trains procurement employees to become experts in their field and supports seasoned marketing procurement managers as a consultant and adept sounding board for a wide range of professional issues.