Breakups can be messy, and possibly nobody in business knows this better than advertising agencies and their clients.
Often after creative agency staffers come up with a new logo, slogan or promotional campaign for a client, they will be abruptly dropped when the company chooses to go in another direction or do more marketing work themselves.
Minneapolis ad shop Mono decided to embrace the fickleness and launch monoOne, a one-year partnership model in which a Mono senior team will create a brand platform and execute it for a fixed fee before it then hands off a road map that can be expanded on by the company's own staff. Mono executives hope the endeavor will lessen the painful transitions at the end of agency-client relationships.
"In traditional relationships, where you have an AOR [agency of record] or a project, usually that ends, and sometimes it ends because they have a financial obligation that they have to do something else and then you don't have that connection with the company that allows them to continue the work that you started in a genuine way," said Chris Lange, managing creative director and one of the co-founders of Mono.
He continued, "I think one of the unique things about monoOne is that it's all in the open. It's a one-year commitment. They know we are going to go away. We help train them on how to move it forward."
Last month was the official launch of monoOne. While Mono hasn't secured a client yet under the new structure, potential partnerships are under discussion.
The need for a different type of collaboration has arisen during a time when fewer companies are relying on just one agency of record that oversees all of their marketing. Many companies employ a wide team of firms to manage different aspects of their brand engagement — whether that be media buying and planning, public relations or mobile content. Sometimes firms are asked to help on a one-off project or particular initiative.
"Now the landscape is completely different," said Michael Hart, a Mono co-founder and the firm's other managing creative director. "You got CMOs [chief marketing officers] who have all sorts of opportunities and different partners to work with. … Sometimes they have an AOR to do that and work year over year. Sometimes they just need a transformational idea and then a partner that understands how to give them the tools."