We have always wanted to read advertisers' thoughts so badly that Mikhail Pishvanov, managing partner of Voskhod and co-chair of the Creative Committee of Russian Association of communication agencies (RACA), initiated a whole study under the auspices of the association. Creative Health Tracking consisted of two phases: the first wave took place in 2023 and touched on data from 2022, while the second wave took place in 2024 based on data from 2023. After comparing the results, we noticed several positive changes in agency-client relationships.
Advertisers are finally starting to see agencies as partners rather than project implementers. According to the 2024 survey, 37% of companies choose an advertising agency for an entire year, while last year only 14% did so. A year is exactly the period of joint work, during which the agency can not only make a high-quality one-off product, but also make a significant contribution to the client's business from a strategic point of view.
In addition, advertisers began to hold joint tenders more often, i.e. to entrust several projects to one agency. The share of such cases increased from 11% to 38% over the year. All this strengthens the connection between clients and advertisers, and reduces the amount of paperwork for both parties.
Against the backdrop of general inflation, but not only because of it, advertisers are forced to spend more money on marketing. The share of clients with marketing and communication budgets of 100 to 500 million rubles has increased from 22% to 33%. A quarter of respondents have from 500 million to 1 billion rubles at their disposal. And 22% pay more than a billion rubles for marketing. If earlier it seemed that only some big players could afford such investments, now it is becoming the norm.
However, large clients allocate only 2-4% of the total marketing and communication budget for creative services. And this is the main contradiction of the market, as it is the quality of ideas that determines the effectiveness of almost the entire budget (96-98%).
There is a growing interest in developing the concept of a long-term advertising campaign. In 2022, 52% of respondents asked for it, and in 2023 already 68%. This product allows brands to be consistent in their promotion over a long distance, and subsequently optimize their marketing and communication budget.
In terms of the number of requests, the most demanded, as a year ago, remains the service for the development of tactical advertising campaigns. And this is understandable, as brands have more and more operational tasks.
That's why 60% of advertisers create inhouse design of advertising materials, and 44% produce video content. Informing brands requires agility rather than expensive creative solutions.
The main criterion that companies focus on when choosing a supplier is the proposed idea. In second place is the price of services, and in third place is the agency's experience in working with the industry.
Tenders continue to be a major topic of discussion within the industry. While paid tenders used to be the exception to the rule, now half of respondents pay agencies to participate in a tender. This shows that clients need quality ideas, which can only be guaranteed by compensating the labor costs of participants. Such conditions are dictated by the market.
Paradoxically, 52% of respondents believe that the motivation of agencies does not depend on the fact of payment or non-payment of the tender. In this respect the opinions of customers and advertising service providers diverge.
In a situation where human resources are scarce, agencies are no longer willing to spend their team's time preparing free personalized offers.