Malcolm Rankin, Chairman Asia Pacific, Aprais

“The service that Aprais provides is more like auditing the relationship between client and agency for longevity of their partnership and for better outcome. It aims at clients and agencies wishing to arrive at equitable solutions for agency compensation. Aprais works with marketers and their advertising, direct marketing, PR and other communications agencies to help them interact more effectively.”

The relationship between client and agency has become very critical with aggressive competition in the field. Banking on this, Aprais, a UK-based marketing communications consultancy, has made its foray into the Indian market by entering into a strategic partnership with Sting Communications, a marketing consultancy headed by ex-JWT hand Sunil Gupta. As Country Head-India and Sri Lanka for Aprais, Gupta will be responsible for marketing and managing the Aprais process. Aprais has a client base, consisting of brands such as Nestle, Renault, Philips, Emirates, Toyota, Kimberly Clark, GSK etc and agencies like O&M, Lowe, JWT, McCann, BBDO, Publicis, Euro RSCG, Leo Burnett and Saatchi & Saatchi in different parts of the world. In conversation with Sakshi Talwar of exchange4media, Malcolm Rankin, Chairman, Asia Pacific, Aprais, speaks about his plans for India. Excerpts:

Q. Why do you think that it is the ripe time to enter the Indian market?

We are operating in all key markets and regions of the world. We now want to provide major clients and agencies operating in India with the ‘Gold Standard’ in relationship measurement and management processes. Plus, I think there has been a major move from master-servant relationship to partnership in India like in the rest of the world. Secondly, most of the relationship appraisal systems that are used today are client generated and they tend to be nothing more than a 12-month dipstick and you don’t really get to address the issues. Just doing the assessment is not enough but what you do with the information after you have assessed it is important. Thirdly, there has been a major move away from commission towards retainer base. What the clients are becoming more enlightened about and what the agencies are now seeking is performance-based remunerations. Aprais allows you to measure that performance.

It all works online and entails answering a standard set of questions by the client and the agency. Before that the team leaders need to register and that registration process they decide what discipline is going to be covered and what weightage would be given to each discipline. You agree who is going to take part and what areas will those people be given access to. This is the basis on which we go into the process. At the end of every segment, you have the ability to comment freely. We have also developed a very sophisticated, yet easy to use on-screen system for performance-based remuneration calculation, incorporating qualitative and quantitative data measurements. The system provides clients with the ability to accurately assess the cause and effect of the agencies contribution -- on the criteria over which the agency has some control-- and then pay them according to their achieved level of performance. We have graphic identification of satisfaction or dissatisfaction within the relationship clients have with their agencies, and vice versa. Both parties are able to rate the agency and the company performance over time.

Aprais has demonstrated in the most demanding environments that it will help bring both parties closer together with mutual trust and shared goals. Also attention will be focused specifically on the business on a regular basis, outside the day-to-day workload. It enables to draw out client or agency concerns before they become relationship threatening. In addition, it not only improves the quality of client briefing and information sharing but also helps refine the creative process. It ensures a longer and more productive relationship, improving financial and emotional ROI for both parties, through better work and stronger relationships.

We don’t give that out but last year we analysed over 2000 separate relationships. We have in our database over 1.5 million individual responses to the questionnaires. Aprais currently helps manage the relationships in every category, on billings in excess of $1.5 billion in Australia alone. We believe that the Asian market will be at least three times bigger than the Australian market.

Our philosophy is to focus solely on relationship appraisal and performance enhancement work rather getting into peripheral areas, which could potentially put us into conflict-of interest situations. We do not see our role as being an agent for either the client or the agency, but rather the agent of the relationship between both. A better relationship naturally leads to better work and ultimately, a better Return on Investment for both parties.

The agencies and clients that use Aprais are looking at ways to maximise ROI, the relationship and systems, and output quality. Our target is, not exclusively though, top 20 agencies and top 50 clients because they have a level of sophistication that comes with being large and an understanding that a relationship is a two-way thing. Besides, we improve productivity of agency, give longevity on an account and enable performance-based remuneration. Our system has gained wide acceptance within the industry, both in Asia Pacific and worldwide because of its absolute impartiality, and its ability to deliver accurate relevant results beneficial to both agencies and clients.

We insist on splitting the cost unless there is a joint ownership, there cannot be joint commitment. When we approach a client or an agency, we have to do two sales effectively to get one sale. Our experience is such that without that dual commitment, the relationship will not improve. We don’t work for the client or the agency but we work for the relationship. And our aim is to constantly improve that relationship over time.

We believe in longevity of relationships because the cost of changing the agency is enormous for the client. It is also a very long process. Our purpose will be defeated if the client has to change the agency. We believe in strengthening the relationship. When we started in Australia five years back, we were selling only to clients. We then understood the benefits to the agency are much lager. It took the experience of the agency with the system to understand that it doesn’t threaten them but actually helps them. Now, agencies are recommending us to clients.

For media agencies we have separate questionnaire that apply. We have different benchmarks for different categories of relationships type.

We recently conducted an analysis of a major client’s scores of multiple agency relationships over 7 Rounds. During that time, these scores increased from an average of 56.7 per cent in Round 1 to 73.1 per cent in Round 7 – which is an increase of 28 per cent in client perceptions of agency performance. This could only have happened from the client’s continued reliance on the Aprais system.

The service that we provide is more like auditing the relationship between client and agency for longevity of their partnership and for better outcome. It aims at clients and agencies wishing to arrive at equitable solutions for agency compensation. Aprais works with marketers and their advertising, direct marketing, PR and other communications agencies to help them interact together more effectively. The service is an online process using proprietary and very sophisticated web-based technology, backed by high-level human facilitation. Using these specially created proprietary processes. It is a 360-degree service, analysing both agency and client performance using quantitative and qualitative data. The system involves two evaluation rounds per annum, and is funded 50:50 by client and agency to ensure joint ownership and mutual benefit. We provide clients and agencies with an actual measure of performance. This performance score brings together all the participants questions, in all disciplines.