A new report from the European Association of Communications Agencies (EACA) with Kantar, reveals the contradiction at the heart of what clients want from their agencies.
The CMOs’ Expectations Study reveals that nearly all (94%) clients believe agencies can be true partners they can trust but they continue to undermine the process of building trust by constantly holding pitches and changing partners.
Nearly half of those questioned ran a pitch within the last year, and 65% of those resulted in an agency change. Such constant turnover makes it harder to agencies to behave as true partners and produce more effective communications. Research into Effie Europe 2025 entries reveals that partnerships that have lasted five years or longer are far more effective and successful than those that have shorter tenures.
The report, designed to help agencies understand how they can better meet client needs, is the most comprehensive European study to date on what CMOs expect from their agencies, based on responses from 141 different companies in 22 European markets, with 95% of respondents in marketing/communication or top management roles across a broad range of brand-driven sectors such as consumer goods, banking, insurance, energy, tech and services.
EACA worked closely with Kantar to analyse responses, using both closed-question analytics and open-ended semantic analysis, delivering both a clear ranking of CMO priorities and a deeper understanding of the emotional and cultural expectations shaping today’s client–agency relationships.
The result is a clear hierarchy of what truly convinces CMOs when choosing an agency, or to continue to work with an existing partner. Trust (49% first choice) and deep business involvement (41%) emerge well ahead of creativity. However, both can only really develop over time and are constantly undermined by inefficient repitching, where six out of 10 winning ideas are never even implemented.
Creative excellence remains important (it’s a Top Three factor for 72% of respondents), but only when paired with strategic intelligence, operational reliability and strong brand stewardship.
“This report confirms the anecdotal evidence from the industry that the agency remit is continuing to expand, with client expectations at an all-time high, while output timelines are shrinking,” says Charley Stoney, CEO of EACA. “It is critical that the industry tackles these expectations and work with advertisers to help them flex remuneration models that pay for this expanded remit, included technology investment. It supports the EACAs opinion that agencies need to move away from the time-based payment structure towards an agile model that works with a blend of human and artificial intelligence services.”
