FORMER AGENCY CEO NORMAN RIGG NAMED ASSOCIATE BY AGENCYLINK

-- Marketers and Advertisers Can Now Better Optimize Client-Agency Relationships --

Toronto, ON, October 8, 2008 . Norman Rigg, a seasoned marketing and advertising executive with 40 years of experience, has joined AgencyLink Inc., a marketing consultancy that specializes in client-agency relationships and performance management.

Rigg boasts a distinguished career managing global client relationships at major marketing and advertising agencies.  For a combined 12 years, he was CEO of DDB Canada and Anderson DDB, and held senior leadership roles at J. Walter Thompson, JWT Direct and Ted Bates.  Rigg has worked for or with international corporations that include Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, Anheuser-Busch, Kellogg’s, Wyeth, ExxonMobil, Ford and Pfizer as well as Government of Ontario Ministries and agencies.  

He has lectured at the Master’s Program at the Schulich School of Business on “Management of the Agency Relationship”.

AgencyLink was founded in January 2008 by partners Sheila Corriveau and Stan Didzbalis, both former agency CEOs and corporate marketers who have managed countless agencies. Together with Rigg, they counsel clients using proprietary and systematic tools to improve client-agency relationships and performance.

“Marketers instinctively know that their agencies are vital in helping them build profitable brands and companies,” says Rigg. “Yet too often we see clients and agencies that are frustrated by their relationships and the result is mediocre work.  AgencyLink helps clients and their agencies apply our systems, processes and experience to strengthen their relationships to improve the effectiveness of communications programs.”

A survey conducted by Reardon Smith Whittaker in November 2007 states that 46 per cent of clients end their agency relationships within two years. This turnover could be prevented if the agency provided better creative, strategic thinking, proactivity and account focus.  At the same time, clients can severely strain the business relationship by not providing clear direction, timely approvals or early engagement.

AgencyLink conducts marketing and communications agency searches, consults and delivers workshops to improve relationships and performance. AgencyLink works with clients that use one or a variety of external agencies for public relations, advertising, branding, digital marketing, promotions, direct marketing, government relations, investor relations, editorial, corporate social marketing, sponsorship, word-of-mouth, and marketing strategy.