The Alliance of Independent Agencies Middle East held its inaugural CEO Summit in Dubai, resulting in some industry findings on what needs to change in client-agency relationships.
Twenty-five chief executives from across the Middle East's independent marketing sector convened for the summit themed "From Request for Proposal to Request for Partnership", which was structured around four pillars: briefing, expertise, commercial fairness, and long-term partnership, revealing a snapshot of where client-agency relationships in the region are falling short.
Some of the key findings
On briefing and transparency, the CEOs identified clearer objectives and KPIs in RFPs as the single most important improvement needed, with a lack of budget transparency also highlighted as a barrier to productive working relationships.
In terms of expertise and specialism, difficulty identifying genuine specialists was identified as the dominant challenge in agency selection, with the agreement that agencies that define their offering more precisely are better placed to win the right mandates and avoid the fee erosion that comes with undifferentiated competition.
When it came to commercial fairness, two findings stood out. It was agreed that receiving structured feedback on pitches, including notification of outcomes, would improve the ability to resource and forecast. Along with this, was the call for agencies to be more selective about the processes they enter, weighing timeframe, scope clarity and RFP quality before committing.
On long-term partnership, procurement-led decision-making was identified as the main challenge to lasting client relationships. On the other end, agency leaders acknowledged a responsibility to move beyond delivery and into genuine strategic counsel, including proactively challenging briefs rather than simply executing against them.
Three principles for the Alliance to champion
When asked to identify the priorities the Alliance should advocate for publicly, three main points came up: collaboration over competition, long-term value over short-term transactions, and expertise over scale.
Nick Walsh, founder of Migrate and Alliance Middle East partner, said the level of consensus among those in the room was itself significant. "The Alliance was founded on the principle of mutual accountability, and these findings are the basis on which we will build practical, industry-wide standards."
Walsh added that what has changed for the independent sector is not the quality of the work, but the coordination behind it. "For decades, independent agencies in the region have delivered strong work, but largely on their own terms and without a collective voice. What has changed now is coordination and collaboration."
The Alliance aims to use the Summit findings to develop a set of publicly available guidelines covering briefing practices, pitch processes, specialist selection, and the conditions required for more sustainable partnerships. The guidelines will be directed at both agencies and clients.
The Alliance of Independent Agencies Middle East is a membership body representing independent marketing, communications, and advertising agencies across the region. It was brought to the Middle East by Migrate, in partnership with The Alliance of Independent Agencies UK, which was founded in 2018.