As someone who has spent years at the intersection of creativity and business, I’ve seen first-hand how procurement can be both a catalyst and a constraint. When it works well, it enables transformative partnerships. When it doesn’t, it reduces the value of what we do to numbers on a spreadsheet.
One of the core challenges we continue to face is the disconnect between marketing and procurement. Marketing teams are focused on driving growth, building engagement and shaping long-term brand value. Procurement teams, meanwhile, are often measured by how much they can reduce costs and optimise for short-term savings.
These objectives don’t have to be at odds, but they can work against each other without alignment. Creativity performs at its best when goals are shared, partnerships are built on trust, and agencies are seen as strategic partners, not just line items on a spreadsheet.
That disconnect often reveals itself during the pitch process. Agencies are still being asked to deliver full creative proposals with limited briefing, no collaboration, no compensation and highly compressed timelines. It has quietly become an accepted norm in the industry. But the model doesn’t hold up if we step back and apply common sense. No architectural firm would be expected to draw up blueprints without a contract. No technology company would build a prototype without an agreement in place.
Yet even the most experienced and awarded agencies are routinely asked to commit significant resources without knowing if the work will ever progress. It’s not just inefficient; it’s fundamentally flawed. The expectation becomes harder to justify when agencies with global scale, proven results and deep resources are evaluated with boutique operations offering vastly different scopes, structures, and experience levels.
The result is often an uneven comparison that favours cost over capability. That approach might satisfy procurement key performance indicators (KPIs) in the short term, but risks compromising the quality and consistency of the work over time.
Agencies consistently delivering world-class creativity invest significantly in talent, infrastructure and innovation. That includes areas such as AI, which is already reshaping how we work. AI can optimise, analyse and accelerate but still needs human oversight to ensure relevance, resonance and cultural nuance. Clients are already asking agencies to integrate AI solutions, but they must also understand that this requires ongoing investment and talent development on the agency side.
You cannot ask for future-ready thinking while still applying outdated procurement models. And then there is the question of timing. Agencies thrive on momentum. We build teams quickly, respond to evolving client needs, and sometimes invest ahead of the brief. However, that momentum is lost when decision-making is delayed and payment cycles stretch over months. It creates operational strain, limits reinvestment and chips away at morale. In other industries, such delays would raise red flags. In advertising, they’re often tolerated as part of the process. That needs to change.
The most successful client-agency relationships we see are the ones where procurement, marketing and agency teams are all aligned on what success looks like. The pitch process is clear, structured and respectful in these cases. The evaluation criteria go beyond price and include strategy, cultural fit and proven results. Payment terms are reasonable, timelines are realistic and the agency is given the space to do what it does best: think boldly and execute brilliantly.
So, what can procurement teams do to unlock better value from their agency partners?
Start by reframing creativity as a growth driver, not a cost. Align KPIs with marketing to ensure you’re measuring what matters. Build pitch processes that respect the time and talent invested, especially when asking for original thinking. If you’re evaluating a shortlist of experienced, strategically capable agencies that are relatively at par, consider floating a request for quotation (RFQ) instead of a full request for proposal (RFP).
Why work on strategies and creative platforms that may never see the light of day? It wastes resources on both sides and rarely delivers the best thinking. The best work happens when agencies and clients collaborate closely, not when agencies are forced to work in isolation to guess what a client needs. Creativity is iterative, built on conversations, challenges and feedback. A pitch should be the beginning of a partnership, not a contest of who can guess best under pressure.
Finally, apply the same urgency to decisions and payments that you expect from agencies in delivery. Agencies thrive on momentum. They are built to move fast, respond to change and, sometimes, invest in ideas before contracts are even signed. When systems slow that momentum down, the potential of the partnership is rarely fulfilled.
By Ghassan Kassabji, CEO Dubai, CGO MENA, Impact BBDO
