‘Suboptimal process’: Only a third of agencies believe they receive constructive feedback, study finds
While around half (52%) of marketers believe they give clear and constructive feedback, less than a third (30%) of agencies agree, according to a new report.
Poor feedback, subjective decisions and a lack of training in evaluating creative ideas are some of the issues facing client-agency relationships and are stifling creativity, according to a new report from the IPA, WFA, BetterBriefs and Flood + Partners.
While around half (52%) of marketers believe they give clear and constructive feedback, less than a third (30%) of agencies agree.
Subjectivity also dominates decision-making, with 89% of agencies and 84% of marketers admitting that personal opinion has a big impact on decision making.
Meanwhile, just 30% of agencies and 27% of marketers feel well-trained in evaluating ideas.
The global study ‘The BetterIdeas Project’ asked 1,034 agency, marketer and in-house respondents across 54 countries about the state of the creative process.
It finds that the industry places great value on creative ideas, with over three-quarters of marketers and 91% of agencies agreeing that they are essential to an organisation’s marketing efforts.
However, the re-work rate is high and time-consuming. As recorded by the IPA, the average number of revisions before approval has jumped from three rounds in 2007 to five rounds today.
Laurence Green, director of effectiveness at the IPA, says the report is “something of a wake-up call” for the industry.
“The result – no less than five rounds of re-work, according to this dataset – is in nobody’s interest. It’s inefficient, obviously, but militates against effectiveness also.”Want to know what you’re worth? 2025 marketing pay revealed
Respondents describe the approval process as inconsistent, slow, subjective and painful. Only 23% of agencies (rising to 56% of marketers) believe it works well, while just 43% of agencies and 62% of marketers say the right people sign off on creative ideas.
Meanwhile, 23% of agencies and even fewer (15%) marketers agree that briefs are always used by their organisations when evaluating ideas, and only 10% of all respondents agree that ideas are evaluated against clearly defined criteria.
Alarmingly, less than a third of agencies (29%) believe that marketers inspire them to do their best work.
“Creativity is the lifeblood of our industry and a core driver of growth. Sadly, there’s often a suboptimal creative process that delivers sub-par results,” explains WFA’s CEO Stephan Loerke.
“Advertisers and their agencies must invest time, effort and greater faith in fit-for-purpose briefing, evaluation and approval processes that foster collaboration and trust in order to generate bold ideas,” he says. “Getting this right is the only way to truly harness the power of creativity and enhance the perception of marketing as a key driver of growth.”
