A Confidence Gap Opens on Madison Avenue, and Only One Side Seems to Have Noticed

There is an old joke about the couple in therapy where one partner believes the relationship is thriving while the other has already contacted a lawyer. The advertising industry, it seems, may be having a similar conversation with itself.

Research presented last week at The Drum Live in London found that 77 percent of agency leaders believe they are delivering the services their clients want. Among brand marketers, just 23 percent agreed. The study, conducted by iResearch in partnership with The Drum, surveyed 300 marketing executives across the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific.

Yogesh Shah, the chief executive of iResearch, described the gap as the study's centerpiece — and as something more serious than wounded feelings. "This is not a perception risk," Mr. Shah said. "I think this is more about the business risk for us as an industry."

(One imagines the holding company earnings calls will not dwell on this particular data point.)

Michele Rousseau, the chief marketing officer at Starling Bank, the British digital lender, said she was surprised by the size of the divide but placed responsibility squarely on the client side. "The gap is as big as marketers let it be," she said. At Starling, Ms. Rousseau said, that means briefing agencies properly, giving them access to business context and allowing them room to challenge the assignment rather than simply complete it.

Ajaz Ahmed, the co-founder of Studio.One, offered a diagnosis that has become familiar in agency circles: the industry that sells communication is often poor at communicating its own value. "The irony of the agency business is how bad agencies are themselves at communicating how they can help transform organizations," Mr. Ahmed said.

The research also surfaced a quieter finding that may prove more consequential. Nearly 80 percent of brand marketers said they expect brand strategy to be handled in-house by 2030. Among agency leaders, just 49 percent shared that expectation — a gap that suggests one side of Madison Avenue may not yet have read the memo the other side is already acting on.

Original story published in The Drum: "Agencies think they’re delivering what brands want. Brands disagree | The Drum"