Working in the agency world is a little bit like the dating scene—if you are around it long enough, you are bound to get your heart broken (or wallet as the case may be) once or twice.

It’s no secret that agencies are let go for a variety of reasons that range from the completely justifiable to the head scratchers.  The average retention rate of clients in the PR business is something in the neighborhood of 12-16 months depending on which reports you choose to believe (I am happy to report SHIFT’s is much longer!).  With such a revolving door, one must wonder: what drives a pharmaceutical company to fire its social media agency?

There is no definitive list of reasons that leads to an agency getting the boot.  It can be a result of missed metrics, poor strategy outlines, faulty execution, budget constraints, etc…And while the list is long, I’d venture to guess that there are two primary buckets that cause a pharma company to fire its social media agency—false promises made by the agency and unreasonable expectations of the pharmaceutical company (sometimes one causes the other).  We’ll take these one at a time.

False Promises Made by the Agency

I touched on this one a bit in yesterday’s post.  Too often, agencies walk into a pitch eager to win business and selling whatever they think the company at the other side of the table wants to buy.  They do this without regard for whether or not they believe they can deliver on those lofty promises.  Why?  They don’t care.  The goal is to win the business and earn a quick buck—not create sustained value.  This breeds the thinking that social media is a silver bullet.  With people out there selling it as such, it is no wonder that some marketers think that social media has the ability to mask existing problems.  It does not.  Because agencies are selling false hope, when they can’t deliver on that hope, they get the axe—justifiably.

A good social media agency will outline challenging goals, but not make promises of a brand remake over night.  A good agency will highlight the risks of engaging in social media and have a plan in place to mitigate those risks and deal with them when they arise.  Most importantly, a good social media agency will say “no”.  They won’t be afraid to tell you if your strategy is off base, or if your line of thinking will fall down when engaging with a community online.  If your social media agency is afraid to tell you “no” I can almost assure you the program will fail.  False promises are a quick way to the unemployment line and only makes the job of legitimate agencies that much more difficult.

Unreasonable Expectations of the Pharmaceutical Company

The message I have been trumpeting recently, along with others, is that social media does not shovel problems under the rug—it rips the rug off the floor.  If a company walks into a social media engagement thinking that it can distance itself from product problems or damaging messaging it is sorely mistaken.  The more likely result is the social media community will expose that problem quicker than you ever thought was possible.  And not only will it be exposed, it will run rampant until you step up and offer a solution.  The thing people often forget about social media is that it acts as one giant neighborhood watch.  Phonies are uncovered, bad products are rooted out and shifty salesmen are pinpointed.  It’s not a comfortable place to be if you have skeletons in the closet.

Unfortunately, some pharmaceutical companies are willing to throw caution to the wind and hope social media can work miracles.  When those miracles fail to materialize, the social media takes the fall.  Sure, it is the job of the agency to steer the client in the right direction and set appropriate expectations, but sometimes it is not enough.  In those cases, the pharma company is bound to fail because it simply demands too much.

The Lesson?

The new marketing model increases accountability on both the vendor and client side.  The days of arm’s length relationships are coming to a screeching halt.  In order to truly succeed in social media, you better have a true partnership.  Afterall, if you can’t master that relationship, you can forget about the new ones you will be forming through social media.

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