Client conflict issues have been around for as long as agencies have, yet agencies are apparently still at a loss in devising a feasible solution to what is proving to be one of the biggest obstacles to their growth.
If anything, clients have grown increasingly guarded since the competitive edge they would enjoy in being the first company to market has been truncated from years to a matter of weeks.
With few viable solutions in sight, a second-tier agency may well be the answer that has eluded the industry all these years. But it's not a solution without its pitfalls. The risk that a second-tier network could become nothing more than an onerous cost centre should clients remain wary about sharing an agency with a rival company is very real indeed.
Ultimately, it all boils down to winning a client's trust, though this was not a factor in Hang Seng's choice to cut its ties with JWT. Clients want iron-clad guarantees - much more than a newly-registered agency can provide - to ensure their trade secrets remain just that - secrets. One option is for agencies to invest in third-part security audits to prove that the walls they have between their companies are more than rock solid.
That will take plenty of money and a very long time. But if clients buy in, it would be one of the better investments agencies could make at a time when few new revenue sources are opening up.
