We hope that you will find the following case to be helpful. If, after reading, you would like to learn more about our experience, please contact Dan Plachta at dplachta@bedfordgroupconsulting.com.

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Mobilizing Marketing Services and Advertising at a Major National Bank

Client Profile: A top-5 bank in the US, with retail branches in 21 states and presence in 40
international countries.

Situation:

Client challenged by discordant structural and organizational relationships
- Internally
  - Advertising department vs. in-house advertising and collateral operation
  - Limited respect from senior management
- Externally
  - Agency not delivering basics
  - Consistently offering “value added” extras
  - Unhappy account team
Client concerned with perception of low value for dollar from high costs of advertising agency
- Wanted renewed contract
- Wanted incentive systems, lower costs
Anticipated moving to new agency if issues not resolved at contract stage

The Bedford Group’s Contribution:

Analyzed current marketing and advertising management
- Interviewed key stakeholders:
  - Within marketing
  - Within management
  - In-house creative
  - At advertising agency
- Tracked workflow internally and between Client and advertising agency
- Analyzed account management systems and procedures at advertising agency
- Evaluated nature of relationship in joint meeting
- Cost accounting analysis
  - Compared agency pricing to industry benchmarks
- Proposed new structures and working relationships to improve productivity
  - Focused more on fixing how Client used their advertising agency
- Offered alternative contracts and compensation plans
- Highly improved management of advertising function
- Improved, more productive advertising agency relationship