Study to Benchmark Effectiveness of Interactive Agencies

People Design Technology (PDT), a Dallas-based research and consulting firm specializing in online strategy and agency selection and utilization, plans a national study to quantify the effectiveness of Internet agencies in meeting the needs of marketers.

Findings will be presented in a talk entitled “What Do Clients Want?” at Thunder Lizard’s Web Advertising ’99 conference April 26-28 in New York.

The study will measure clients’ satisfaction with the practices of interactive services firms including Web developers, ad agencies, systems integrators and other online service providers. The study will focus on: Criteria used in selecting an interactive firm; Clients’ expectation levels for interactive firms; external vs. internal online resource selection issues; Common causes of breakdowns in client relationships; Online resource utilization forecasts; Gaps in the service offerings of interactive firms.

“Because e-business has reached such a critical mass, the need for an industry report card has become vital,” said Thom Forbes, chairman of Thunder Lizard’s Web Advertising ’99 and editor of BackChannel, the newsletter of the American Association of Advertising Agencies. “There is a clear and present need for quantifiable information about the performance in the interactive field.”

P|D|T will do a phone survey of marketing, business unit and IT decision makers from companies within nine industries: retail, financial services, telecom, media, consumer packaged goods, professional services, healthcare, durable goods and utilities. Additionally, clients who recommend, select, or manage outside Web development resources may register to participate here.

“The survey will identify the key issues in client-agency relations, provide benchmarks for client satisfaction in online advertising and marketing, track current and planned usage of internal and external resources, and rate agencies qualitatively and quantitatively,” said Lee Wright, founding principal of PDT.

Wright, who will oversee the study, has more than 15 years of marketing experience, having developed online strategies for a variety of business-to-business and business-to-consumer companies.