Marketing Challenges and Advertising Partner Selection: Exploring Advertiser-Agency Relationships in the Danish Media Industry

Abstract

Purpose: Agencies traditionally play the role of intermediaries between advertisers and media. Digital innovations and the rise of media platforms created multiple new channels to reach audiences and therefore provided opportunities and challenges for advertisers. In this research we map out advertisers’ marketing-related challenges and explore how these challenges influence agency partner selection.

Methodology: Our study is based on a survey of 146 larger Danish advertisers, using a combination of open and closed questions. An inductive thematic analysis resulted in the identification of 13 different marketing challenges, that we linked to the use of different types of agencies. Closed questions were aimed at identifying for example whether advertisers aim for more in-sourcing, or out-sourcing of marketing activities to agencies.

Findings/Contribution: This research firstly reveals the challenges of advertisers in today’s media market. Secondly, we discuss how agencies adopted new business models to answer different needs of their clients. Thirdly, the findings suggest that almost all surveyed advertisers use multiple agencies to solve their marketing challenges but prefer to maintain control over these agencies. The findings update what we know about marketing challenges for advertisers and suggest an altered academic perspective on the complexity around agency selection, and the role of the advertising agency.