The Problem
Agency evaluation is fundamentally broken
Every year, brands invest millions in agency partnerships. They evaluate chemistry, review portfolios, negotiate rates, and hope for the best. Then they wonder why the same operational frictions appear quarter after quarter.
The Pitch Fallacy
Pitch-based assessment measures what an agency promises, not how they operate. There is a significant gap between what is presented in a pitch — the A-team, the rapid turnaround, the innovative thinking — and what is delivered operationally once the contract is signed. Yet the industry continues to select and evaluate agencies based on a process designed to showcase potential rather than performance.
“You wouldn't hire a surgeon based on their presentation skills. Why select an agency based on a pitch?”
The Benchmarking Trap
Fee benchmarking was designed for a pre-AI world where the primary input was human time. Today, AI-enabled teams can complete work in a fraction of the time — but rate cards haven't adjusted. Comparing your agency's fees against backward-looking market norms tells you whether you're paying market rate. It doesn't tell you whether market rate still makes sense when an AI-enabled team can produce the same output at 40% lower cost.
“Benchmarking against yesterday's costs in tomorrow's world is like evaluating a Tesla against horse-drawn carriage efficiency standards.”
The Annual Snapshot Problem
Point-in-time evaluations miss the operational patterns that drive or destroy efficiency. A quarterly review captures sentiment at a moment. It doesn't capture the three-week delay patterns in the approval process, the 6.3 average revision cycles on social content, or the gradual scope creep that added 40% to campaign costs over twelve months. These patterns are only visible through continuous monitoring.
“You wouldn't manage your investment portfolio with an annual check-in. Why manage your biggest marketing investment that way?”
The Relationship Gap
Traditional evaluations ask 'how do you feel about the agency?' This matters — relationships drive collaboration. But feelings don't measure efficiency. Your team might love working with an agency that consistently delivers late, over budget, with excessive revision cycles. Or they might rate an operationally excellent agency poorly because the chemistry isn't there. Both data points matter. Only one is currently being measured.
“CLI doesn't replace relationship evaluation. It adds the operational intelligence layer that's been missing.”
Ready to see the full picture?
The Efficiency Calculator gives you a preliminary assessment in minutes. A full CLI engagement delivers the complete operational intelligence.