ESTABLISHED 1972

About

Us

JLB + Partners (JLB+P) is the oldest and most experienced consultancy specializing in issues of agency search, compensation, and relationship management.

JLB+P consultants are regularly called upon to provide our perspective on the subjects of agency sourcing, search, and selection; agency compensation (remuneration); and agency performance. We are the authors of the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) guidebooks and “Insights Briefs” on these subjects and speak regularly at the ANA and other marketing and agency industry venues.

Why JLB +

Partners?

Our Client Experience

Founded in 1972, our firm is the original client-agency relationship consultancy. Thousands of client engagements covering every business category have given us unparalleled experience with companies large and small—from local to regional, national to global.

Our Consultants

We bring only the most experienced consultants into our practice.
All of our consultants have at least twenty-five years of experience working at blue-chip agencies and marketing organizations. We do not hand off our client assignments to assistants. Our senior consultants are fully engaged from start to finish.

Our Objectivity

Unlike other client-agency consultancies, we do not have a pay-for-play business model. We do not require agencies to tithe to us annually to be part of our database or to be considered in our search processes. Nor do we accept contingency fee arrangements on our agency compensation or media auditing assignments. Our recommendations are totally objective and agency-neutral.

Our Global Reach

Our partnership model brings together industry-leading experts with boots on the ground and extensive consulting experience throughout the Americas, EMEA, and APAC. Our agency insights and benchmarks cover every major global market and virtually every type of marketing communications agency.

Our Service Focus

Our consulting is focused solely on issues of client-agency relationships and performance management. Whether sourcing a new agency partner, more effectively managing an existing agency relationship to improve performance, or structuring a more effective agency contract and compensation plan, you will work with consultants who know the subject inside and out.

5

PARTNERS

Global

REACH & SCALE

Our Track Record

Our consulting practice produces results. As testament to this, our clients routinely come back to engage us for additional work that addresses their varying and evolving agency issues and needs. Clients such as U.S. Army, Microsoft, Levi Strauss, SC Johnson, Walmart, Walgreens, Discover Financial Services and Sam’s Club, just to name a few, return to us repeatedly for our counsel.

Our Story


Founded in 1972, JLB + Partners (JLB+P) is the most experienced and trusted consultancy specializing in agency search, compensation, and relationship management.

We were among the first firms to effectively move marketers from media commissions to fee-based compensation. We were also among the first to structure successful incentive agency compensation agreements. And we continue our history of industry leadership as authors of the triennial “Trends in Agency Compensation” report in partnership with the Association of National Advertisers (ana.org).

JLB+P has partnered with many of the world’s leading marketers and brands, from global to local, from large to small, and from decades-old firms to startups. We also have long-standing partnerships with leading and like-minded agency relationship management specialists in Asia, Europe, and Latin America, making JLB+P a trusted advisor to top global marketers today. Our success is also based on our strong and extensive relationships with agencies, and the mutual trust and respect we have developed with our network over 50 years.

The consultancy was founded by agency veteran Charles B. (Chuck) Jones, who was later joined by Bob Lundin and Stan Beals. The JLB+P team of consultants brings decades of global advertising agency and client-side marketing experience to expertly guide our clients to finding and cultivating lasting partnerships.

Global Leadership


David Beals

Senior Advisor

Tom Browning

President & CEO

Mary Conrad

Senior Advisor

Debbie McKean

Senior Consultant

Steve Griffiths

Senior Consultant, JLB + Partners London

Julie Wenger

Senior Consultant

David Beals

Senior Advisor

Dave has provided counsel to a diverse group of clients including General Motors, U.S. Army, S.C. Johnson, Walmart, Whirlpool, Kellogg’s, Cisco Systems, Johnson & Johnson, Michelin, Microsoft, Allstate, Nissan, and Dairy Queen.
He is the author of the Association of National Advertisers’ triennial Trends in Agency Compensation surveys, and the latest ANA editions of Evaluating Agency Performance, and Agency Compensation: A Guidebook. Prior to JLB+P, David was a Senior VP, Group Account Director at DDB.
There, he worked with a variety of the country’s biggest and best-known advertisers, including Anheuser-Busch, McDonald’s, General Mills, and Campbell Soup Company. David received a B.A. in International Affairs from the University of Colorado and a Masters Degree in International Management from the Thunderbird School of Global Management.