International Commerce International Marketing Internet Advertising Internet Economy Internet Media Internet Prod. Commentary Online Advert. Many of us have come up against this situation - clients insist on handling certain advertising deals themselves and ask the agency to concentrate its efforts elsewhere. Most often, this situation arises between the agency and the client's business development department.
Roles tend to overlap most often when it comes time to cut high-profile portal deals.
Biz Dev will often argue that good relationships with the portals are crucial to the success of the client's business, and that a relationship should contain components that extend beyond advertising. Frankly, it's a good argument. Problem is, inexperienced clients can get themselves into a good deal of trouble by signing off on multi-million dollar arrangements without consulting the agency. As a result, they tend not to pay out as well as agency-negotiated deals. Not only does this waste media dollars, but it also closes off a perfectly good media opportunity to the agency.