As part of Tony Koenderman's AdReview 2008, the Baobab Award has been established by IAS, the Independent Agency Search and Selection Company, to celebrate and reward effective and successful client-agency relationships. The award will be presented to an agency which can show the greatest ability in this respect, as measured by the range of indicators given below.
As a symbol of longevity, the baobab tree has been chosen, which is reputed to live up to 3000 years.
The indicators are all weighted according to their importance in measuring client-agency relationships. They are:
- Longevity of relationships (30% of total score);
- Revenue growth rate, averaged over three years (10%);
- Billings value of account wins and losses, averaged over three years (10%);
- Success rate at pitches (10%);
- Additional business won from existing clients (20%)
- Rationale from the agency, with client endorsement (20%).
Candidate agencies are also asked to submit a 500-word rationale explaining why they merit the award, outlining examples of trust in the agency by clients.
Contact Terry Barker at Finweek on fax +27 (0)11 263 4780 or email for an entry form, which needs to be returned by Thursday, 21 February 2008.