5 Tips for Agency Partnerships

By Adam Kleinberg
I had an article published on iMedia today about Agency Partnerships. Partnerships are vital in today's day and age—and we've had a lot of them. Here I provide 5 tips to be successful at them.
I had an article published on iMedia today about Agency Partnerships. Partnerships are vital in today's day and age—and we've had a lot of them. Here I provide 5 tips to be successful at them.
The tips I provided were:
1. Strategy first, then assignments. Clients—if you dole out assignments first, you might wind up with a strategy that maps back to your agency turf instead of your business objectives.
2. Relationships matter. Make sure the people behind the logos actually know and trust one another.
3. Process alignment. What kind of process are your partners using? Are they in alignment.
4. Get contracts in order—before you win the business. Don't let your business relationship with your partners become a distraction.
5. Creative briefing: Follow the leader. Make absolutely sure your partners are working off the same brief.

Adam Kleinberg has been CEO and a founding partner of Traction since 2001. He has written over 100 articles in publications like AdAge, Adweek, Fast Company, Forbes, Mashable and Digiday and spoken at dozens of industry conferences. He's led Traction to win Agency of the Year awards from AdAge, ANA B2 Awards, CampaignUS, and in 2025, he was recognized as one of the Campaign 40 Over 40 game-changers in marketing and advertising.

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