Not unlike an orchestra, in which every instrument must be in tune and sync or the whole thing sounds like a mess, the three-way partnership among brands, media companies and media agencies is one of delicacy and balance. And that's never been truer than it is today, when companies are striving to get the most out of their budgets and the media landscape -- old and new -- is cluttered with messages.

For chief marketing executives, these realities raise critical questions about what is and isn't working when it comes to their relationships with agencies and media partners -- questions recently put to a select group of top-ranking marketing officials, the party in this triumvirate that controls the purse strings. They were asked to speak candidly, and they did.

The news is decidedly mixed. But one thing became crystal clear: To cut through the clutter, solutions are imperative, and the development of break-through techniques have been put at the very top of their agency to-do lists. But innovative ideas, more critical than ever, are far and few between.

The Innovation Gap
Some marketing executives devoted to new-media campaigns say they face a unique challenge: publishers are less interested in the creation of novel ads than they are other content.

"Publishers generally seem to be more committed to developing innovative features for their Web sites and extensions like mobile than to developing innovative, effective ad products," says Jenny Howell, manager of interactive marketing at American Honda Motor. "The separation between the product managers who are creating new features for the Web sites and sales reps who are working with us to develop innovative advertising opportunities is often frustrating."

She adds that one of the challenges for the two brands on which she's focused, Honda and Acura, is the increasing amount of time and effort required to create a successful interactive campaign. "It creates a lot more work for all involved -- clients, agencies and media partners," Howell says. That's particularly true for her company, because it customizes almost every interactive campaign.

Not every advertiser resorts to as much customization of its campaigns as Honda. But they still clamor for new and more effective ways to get their messaging out. Laura Klauberg, vp, marketing at Unilever, says the problem is that agencies and media partners have yet to be a consistent source of innovation. While she sees this slowly changing -- "We are getting more [breakthrough ideas] than we had in the past," she says -- the company was far from satisfied.

"Advertisers need to share their brand insights more readily," she says, "And media partners need to be more willing to share their programming assets in new and innovative ways that will engage consumers and cut through the clutter."

Which is why, for its 2009 upfront, Unilever tried something new. The consumer packaged goods giant is working with agency MindShare to brief its media partners on the company's key branding initiatives. The reason: You can't cook up more innovations for a brand if you don't understand what it's about or whom it's trying to reach.



Thus far, says Klauberg, the results are mixed, but the exercise appears to be worthwhile. "Some of our media partners came back with very creative ideas," Klauberg says. "Others did not."

Unilever is interested in ideas that go well beyond the standard formula of brand integration. "Our Bertolli commercial pod on CBS was a great example," Klauberg says. "We partnered with CBS talent to create a specific spot that featured our brand and promoted CBS programming at the same time."

Klauberg also gives high marks to a TV, radio, print and online campaign that ran during the fourth quarter of last year and was developed with ESPN. The heart of the effort featured former Giants defensive end Michael Strahan and Philadelphia Phillies second baseman Chase Utley pointing out the fact that building their bodies takes hours a day, then happily adding that it takes just 15 seconds to "strengthen" their skin, thanks to Vaseline Men products.

Walgreens would like to see more innovative ideas from its partners. As a result, it sometimes leaves the agencies out of the game. (The retailer/pharmacy chain's agencies include Starcom, Digitas, Tapestry Partners and Downtown Partners.)

"My experience is that I get more when I go directly to the media sellers as opposed to getting it out of the agencies," says Christine Kubisztal, manager of media strategy at Walgreens. "It's tougher when there's a middleman. [I'm tired of] trying to get them to go to media sellers and bring stuff forward."

In Kubisztal's view, one heard as well at the recent American Marketing Association conference, is that for agencies to be successful, they need to reorient their thinking. "They have to step outside their comfort zone -- the planners being traditional planners, the buyers being traditional buyers," she says.

Some executives suggest that the recession may be holding agencies back. Mark Kaline, global media director at Kimberly-Clark, who says he's getting lots of solid ideas from his agency, still notes that "one thing clients need to do is make sure their agencies don't succumb to the recessionary economy and feel they can't bring [them] new and creative ideas." Just because a client's budget is flat, Kaline explains, that hardly means the brand doesn't want innovative ideas.

And while innovation seems to have become synonymous with the Internet, Kaline says it doesn't have to be that way. "There are new ways of exploiting old media," he says. "I would challenge not just MindShare [one of Kimberly-Clark's two media agencies, along with Initiative], but any agency, to work with clients on that front."

Kaline adds that the secret to greater collaboration between clients and agencies is transparent communication. "We have a very clear structure of individuals at the agencies that work on our business," he says. "We make sure key people at our company know who to speak with."



Whose Responsible for ROI?
The whole reason for innovation is to deliver better results for the client, and in today's depressed economic environment, better results -- defined through the prism of return on investment -- remains a holy grail of sorts, constantly strived for, sometimes sighted but rarely if ever achieved.

Oddly, a few marketing executives actually report they are satisfied with the returns they're getting. Stephen Quinn, CMO of Wal-Mart Stores U.S., is one: "We measure a lot internally and validate with market testing. And I'm quite happy with our ROI."

But the lion's share of CMOs aren't nearly as content. Walgreens' Kubisztal says her company is in the middle of an ROI metric study, and she's hoping for "a lot of answers in the next month or so." The results will influence Walgreens' media plan for the next fiscal year, beginning in September.

Even without hard data on her desk, Kubisztal already has some changes she'd like to see. In her view, large, traditional media agencies don't see ROI as their responsibility. "It doesn't creep into their work; I'm having to drag them into it," she says. "It's not something that they're bringing forward as an idea to help us through the current economic situation."

Howell has some issues, too, but they lie mostly in the lack of data and metrics to support ROI goals. In fact, Rubin Postaer Associates and Genex get high marks from her and, because her own staff is so small, RPA in particular has become an extension of them. When it comes to ROI, "one of the things we're struggling with is measuring our high-level metrics, awareness and brand perception," she says.

Talk to Me
One thing that wouldn't seem to need much fixing is communication between marketing execs, media companies and agencies. Joel Ewanick, vp of marketing at Hyundai Motor America, says that ongoing conversation between his team and its two agency partners, Goodby Silverstein & Partners and Initiative, has proven well worth the time and trouble. The weekly face-to-face meetings are standard practice, and they also include all members of the team. "Any barriers that might have been between people eventually just go away," Ewanick says.

Others also appreciate the sense of clarity that comes from talking. "Open dialogue is very important to us. And MindShare, our primary agency in North America, is very good at keeping the dialogue open," says Kaline at Kimberly-Clark.

Jackie Woodward, vp of media and marketing at Miller Coors, says she's pleased with the coalition of agencies that came together under the MC Media banner last fall (including Draftfcb, Initiative, Kinetic, Bromley Communications, Digitas and Razorfish) and, specifically, their ability to "listen to our needs and bring us a solution."



Great Expectations
Advertisers, in general, clearly are seeking a whole lot more from their agency and media partners, even though the dissatisfaction level can't be that high (or else the industry would see even more accounts going into review). Wal-Mart's Quinn summarizes it this way: "We all have to keep learning more about the customer, both the consumer of media and the customer at retail. There's still an opportunity to connect with consumers in a deeper way. And it might require a different kind of planning process between ourselves and our media partners."

Though he's a little vague on details, Quinn envisions a new chapter being written in the traditional canon of partnerships among brands, their agencies and media partners. "We're looking for a higher level of collaboration," he says, "so we can create synergies that don't exist today."