Vox Pop - With agencies needing new clients all the more, are intermediaries seeing an increase in demand?

Tom Holmes, Founder & Chairman, creativebrief

"It depends on who you are. Traditional intermediaries, ie. client charging consultancies, who have long practiced the dark art of opaque agency reviews for huge fees, will fade as clients can no longer afford these fees, nor indeed would be allowed to pay them, and the increasing role of procurement will definitely work this way."

Will Hamilton, Senior Consultant, Agency Assessments

"In the current time there is a shift towards efficiency and effectiveness, with so many clients under pressure many are looking to intermediaries for support to leverage their agencies - their assets to 'over deliver'. It's no longer just about ROI but also about ROA (Return on Agencies). Clients are looking for the roadmap to get them through next year, they are looking for flexible working arrangements against different forecast spends and at the same time seeking agency best practice."

Andy Crummey, Partner, The Observatory

"Many intermediaries get paid by both agency and client. As we don't charge agencies, I can't speak from personal experience, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if intermediary income from agencies showed an increase in the short term. Agencies may, out of desperation, look increasingly to such intermediaries as a source of possible salvation. I wish them well but fear most will be disappointed."

Steve Antoniewicz, Managing Director, RAR

"These days there's an intermediary of some kind involved in every transaction we make and it's certainly a growing trend in marketing. At the moment many clients are fundamentally reviewing their marketing functions, searching for greater efficiencies, including from their agencies. This might result in rationalising a roster of existing agencies or just looking for better value for money from a particular supplier. For us, this has meant an increase in demand, particularly from clients looking to benchmark existing agencies or source new suppliers."