ESTABLISHED 1972
Services
JLB + Partners (JLB+P), is available to help you with any of your agency relationship management needs.
Our consulting is focused exclusively on agency search and selection, agency compensation and contracting, and agency performance management.
Establish Search Foundation
Together we develop our proprietary Agency Job Description and Agency Search Criteria that will be the foundation for the RFI
Agency Research, Candidate Identification and qualification
Develop Long list 18-20 of agencies to receive RFI. Reduced to 10-12 agency profiles presented in uniform method
Agency Semi-finalist meetings
5-6 agencies for capabilities review and chemistry check (in person or on video)
Agency Compensation
& Contracting
Precision engineering of agreements and fee structures based on comprehensive industry benchmarks.
Our process is based on over 50 years of practical experience
Working with every
type of agency and issue.
Creative, media, digital, promotional, social media, direct/CRM, PR,
ethnic, experiential, B2B, etc. We use our proprietary agency compensation benchmarks to ensure the client’s preferred agency can be hired at a fair cost/value.
Authors of ANA Agency Search and Selection Guidebook (2020) and insights briefs; regular contributors on best-practices at ANA conferences and leadership committees.
Authors of ANA “Trends in Agency Compensation” Guidebook (2022) which provides the latest trends and more best practices to ANA members/marketers.
- We are strictly a “no pay for play” consultancy.
- We do not collect fees from agencies in any way, shape or form
- This allows us to maintain strict objectivity on behalf of our clients
Agency Fees
For the majority of marketers who employ a fee-based method of compensation, the question of “what is fair to pay” is a common concern. Marketers also often struggle to achieve a time-efficient negotiation and tracking of their agency fees.
JLB + Partners (JLB+P) has been addressing these questions since 1972, and we have deep and current benchmarks across most every type of agency service.
Our fee evaluation services include:
- Analysis and benchmarking of agency labor and/or commission rates: with recommendations on what is fair and reasonable to continue or adjust
- Assessment of agency overhead allocation
- Client-agency relationship “health check”, including assessment and benchmarking of agency account P&L
- Pro and con assessment of retainer vs. project fees
- Format and process for more requesting and evaluating agency fee proposals and financials
- Fee negotiation management and counsel
- Structuring and managing ongoing agency time and fee tracking (“burn reports”)
Agency Reviews
JLB + Partners (JLB+P) offers custom solutions to best meet
your agency performance review needs.
Our services include the following:
- Design of performance evaluation process and surveys, covering relevant criteria, ratings scales and weightings, timing and participants, results reports, and after action reports.
- Management of the performance evaluation process as an objective third party.
- Performance evaluation analysis and diagnosis.
Whether managing the process for you, or simply helping you establish the right process and criteria, we have an online survey tool that allows you to efficiently capture multiple inputs, report findings and follow up on specific actions. Our tool is easily scalable for large national and global assignments involving multiple evaluators. It is also easily customized to allow for specific criteria and questions by type of agency.
Media Audits
JLB + Partners (JLB+P) can evaluate your media agency’s pricing performance and provide guidance to improve the cost-value of your media buys. We can also audit your media agency’s stewardship of your dollars, ensuring that you have properly been credited for make-goods, bonuses, and AVB’s.
To perform these services, we have a formal alliance with Advantage Media, Inc. (AMI), the leading media auditing and stewardship company in the United States. With AMI, our focus is to provide you with the essential facts, insights, objective expertise, and operational tools to not only effectively evaluate the state of your media investments, but to also advise you and your agency on how to improve the value of your media efforts.
JLB+P has partnered with AMI since 2007. We have effectively worked together to provide pricing analyses for major global and national media agency reviews, including GM, J&J, Levi’s, Walgreens, AB-InBev, and SC Johnson.
Aside from agency reviews, AMI has audited the media performance of existing client-agency relationships across all industry categories and covering all the major (and many of the smaller) media agencies.