Marketing Communications

BARRIERS TO INTEGRATED COMMUNICATIONS 27

Figure 1.5 Barriers to integrated communications

In April 2012, consultant Deepblue presented its Communication Agency Tracking study in which the role of Belgian

agencies in IMC is highlighted by advertisers.^66 The study was based on 56 depth interviews and 170 online inter-

views. It contained four main parts: personal perceptions regarding the evolution of the latest communications

business trends in the market; how the communications practices have evolved and how they are likely to keep

evolving; the advertisers’ opinion on the roles of communications agencies; and the advertisers’ evaluation of

agency performance.

The advertisers find that agencies adapted themselves well to the evolution of advertisers’ needs and that crea-

tivity has become more relevant and is more deeply linked with the business objectives of the advertisers. The

structure of agencies facilitates a better use of specialised and diversified skills and agencies are capable of initiat-

ing new trends and making advertisers activate new marketing solutions. However, they also note a number of

weaknesses. Industry fragmentation among mainstream and specialised agencies makes it increasingly difficult to

judge the agencies’ added value. Agencies tend to overestimate their capability of establishing or managing inte-

grated communications strategies and plans. The agency–advertiser relationship is weakened by a lack of (human)

resources, managers’ availability and account stability. Impact models to justify the return on investment of

campaign activities are usually poor.

The vast majority of the interviewees consider the ‘360°’ claim of agencies as merely a marketing label. A 360°

or ‘full service’ agency is an ‘ideal concept’ that can, however, not be realised in the market. They consider it a waste

of time for one single agency to ensure the capabilities to deliver a true 360° communications plan. These attempts

only lead to excessive increases of fees on the basis of the 360° promise. There is a manifest lack of consistency in

the co-ordination of 360° plans. Agencies usually give priorities to the service they feel most comfortable with. On

top of that, there is a marked difference in how to operationalise the 360° concept itself. Agencies think that 360°

means that every communications touchpoint should be used to reach the consumer, while advertisers prefer to

embrace all opportunities and touchpoints, but then select the best options. According to the latter, integration of

BUSINESS INSIGHT

IMC and the role of communication agencies

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