Think big and be bold: Two of the many pieces of advice we commonly offer our clients. We’ve let that mantra be our guide as we set about building a network of international communications agency partnerships so that we could support our clients across the globe as they expand their brands internationally. While we always have had agency friends in those European countries where clients frequently sought support, we decided that it was time to build a network that had a broad enough reach to support not only client needs today but also in the future.
The first step involved a brief survey among clients to determine what characteristics and services they wanted in an international agency partner and how they wanted a network to function. We also tapped our relationships among current and former clients for recommendations identifying agencies with whom they’d worked in the past where service and results had exceeded their expectations.
Armed with this information, we proceeded to interview more than 40 agency founders and principals to determine their experience, their values, how they operate, budget parameters – in short, everything we needed to know about them to determine if they would be a good match for us and our clients.
Knowing that chemistry is a key consideration when selecting an agency and that conflicts can be a factor, our objective was to provide clients with at least two agency choices in each geography. While the task initially seemed overwhelming, what actually happened was that the conversations opened a dialog that was enlightening, informative, really enjoyable, and very productive. A key and somewhat unexpected benefit was learning how our colleagues in different countries were coping with the pandemic and its impact on their businesses. It was a great opportunity to learn from them as they worked to keep their employees and clients hopeful and productive during a very scary time.
Thanks to the agency partners we have worked with for years and the partners that are new to the V2 network, we can now offer clients support throughout Asia, Australia and New Zealand, continental Europe, Latin America and Mexico, the Nordic countries, and the United Arab Emirates.
In relationships where V2 is the global agency of record (AOR), we assist the internal client communications team in managing the agency partners and provide a single point of contact if that is what the client prefers. If agencies are going to be managed locally, on a country-by-country basis, we provide the coordination and continuity that ensure the program’s success.
We’re proud to offer clients the opportunity to experience our commitment to service and results anywhere in the world, regardless of the country or region in which they are operating. If you want to learn more about our partners and programs, please reach out to me ([email protected]) or your account manager for more information.