Advertisers must often choose among agencies and also among campaigns by a given agency. As with other selection problems, structured guides can aid the selection process.

Structured guide

Click here for a Structured guide for evaluating an agency's proposal

Worksheet

Worksheet for evaluating an agency's proposal (Excel)

How to select an agency

Paper on how to select an agency (PDF)

Evaluating Ad Proposals in the Real World

For an in-depth analysis of how six advertising agencies competed for the Subaru of America account in the early 1990s, read Rothenberg’s article “Seducing these Men.”  His project led to the delightful and informative book, Where the Suckers Moon: An Advertising Story. In contrast to the structured procedures recommended above, the bidding process is sometimes unstructured, devoid of evidence, and lacking respect for the client and customer – but it is exciting! I reviewed this book and in doing so, I illustrated the structured rating process shown above.