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June 2008 - Strategy Magazine
Upfront

We need to talk...

by Annette Bourdeau
page 10

Ever feel like your partner just isn't listening to you? Are they over-promising and under-delivering? Maybe it's you....

London-based business relationship measurement/management agency Aprais has been honing its system to, well, appraise such questions, helping clients like Nestlé, McDonald's and L'Oreal improve their relationships with agencies like JWT, Zenith Optimedia and BBDO Worldwide. Agencies need not worry about bias: Aprais's model is to bill both client and agency to ensure objectivity.

"We are an independent third party," says Tony Geary, global CEO of Aprais. "Better relationships lead to better work, which leads to better ROI." Geary points out that, traditionally, clients evaluate their agencies, not themselves, and that one of the most common problems is that clients don't write creative briefs well, resulting in perceived "underperformance" by the agency.

Until this spring, Canadian Aprais clients dealt with the London headquarters. Now it has a Canadian partner: Toronto-based consulting firm AdROI, led by ad vets like Rupert Brendon and Chris Coleman. So instead of raw results from the U.K., Canadian clients can now get customized recommendations. And AdROI will follow up with both parties every six months to make sure they've taken action.

Aprais promises an 11% increase in agency performance and client satisfaction over 12 months. "This should be regular housekeeping," says Brendon. "It's like a marriage." aprais.com/adroiinc.com

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