by Alistair Mokoena (@AlistairMokoena) I read somewhere that the no. 1 reason for divorce is communication, with money being a close second. As a result, most pre-marital courses tend to focus on these two topics. I took away two key lessons from my own such class:
- Effective communication means you should always mean what you say and say what you mean.
- You should respect money, but never worship it.
The focus of this month’s piece is on the role that money plays in souring good client-agency relationships. Let’s face it, no matter how clear-cut the contractual provisions that deal with money are, money still makes us fight.

We are all in business to create shareholder value, clients and agencies alike. Money is the most common proxy for shareholder value. For agencies, value means client revenue and profitability, while for clients it is sales revenue and profit. As you can see, these two definitions of value are not mutually exclusive; however, we often perceive them to be.
Value for money
Value for money simply means the perceived value of outputs should, at minimum, be commensurate to the perceived value of inputs — all the better if the perceived value of outputs exceeds the perceived value of inputs. We all get frustrated when we feel like we are getting less than what we give.
Because marketers, in general, are so bad at defining marketing return on investment, the perceived value of advertising inputs and outputs is less than what it should be. Clients often feel that they are being ripped off and agencies often feel they are being short-changed.
The advertising industry needs to get better at defining, quantifying and justifying their intellectual property. Professions such as medicine, law and accounting have done a good job of this; why can’t we do the same?
Is it because their results are more immediate and tangible, while brand-building takes time as it is more slow-burn?
Attitudes to money
One of the questions you get asked in a pre-marital course is “what is your relationship with money?” In other words, what is your attitude to money?
I really think this is an important conversation to be had between agencies and clients.
Here are a few thought-starters:
- Do you see money as evil and must therefore not be pursued?
- Do you see money as a scarce resource which must be guarded at all costs?
- Do you think money is everything and must therefore be pursued at all costs?
- Do you see money as something that flows through hands and flows back, and should therefore not be hoarded?
- Do you see money as a carrot or stick, or do you see it as a facilitator of value?
What I learnt about money
When I was younger my dad had a pub. One of my duties was to count and bank the money he made. This exposure to money at an early age made me comfortable with the idea of money and not fear that it was in short supply.
Watching the life-cycle of a R100 note, from the minute it went into the cash register into the bank account and out again to buy stock, taught me that money should change hands and not be hoarded. Watching my dad use the money from his business, to take my family on holiday and send my brothers and I to school, taught me that money represents value.
No matter how upset my dad would get with us, he never denied us pocket-money, nor did he bribe us into studying harder towards our degree. He scolded us and had tough chats with us but I don’t remember him using money to accelerate or decelerate our activity levels. He trusted us inherently to do our best, no matter how much maintenance money we got.
Watching him work hard for every rand he made made me realise the value of money and, with this, the need to spend it wisely.
Mistrust
Mistrust between clients and agencies may be traced back to attitudes towards money.
Some clients perceive their agencies as greedy and money-hungry, while some agencies perceive their clients to be stingy and shrewd. A bit like a T-rex with short arms that don’t reach his pockets.
Some clients think their agencies misuse and abuse budgets because they don’t appreciate the value of money. Some agencies feel that their clients are not completely honest about how much money they have. The theory is that some clients withhold budget until they are happy with their agency or cut their budgets midstream when unhappy with their agency.
In other words, budgets are sometimes used as a carrot and a stick. The danger with using money as a stick-and-carrot approach is that it presupposes that agencies are only motivated by money.
My advice
My advice is: make time to reflect on your relationship with money and don’t shy away from asking tough questions. The truth is your attitude towards money comes through in your interactions with your staff as well as your agency.
So what message do you want to send out? Do you know how your clients view money? A healthy relationship with money means you are playing to win. An unhealthy relationship with money means you are avoiding losing.
Take your pick.
Alistair Mokoena (@AlistairMokoena) is a Unilever-trained Chartered Marketer with lots of blue-chip marketing experience who is currently MD of FCB Joburg. One of his favourite pastimes is driving around in the bush, photographing wild animals. Alistair, who switched from client- to agency side at the end of 2012, contributes the monthly “The Switch” column, covering relationships inside agencies and between agencies and clients, to MarkLives.com.
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