I was promised an “integrated team solution” yet I get work that isn’t integrated and I get invoices from five different agencies. How do I improve the level of integration?

Despite years of client requests, delivering a wholly-integrated solution continues to be a challenge unless your advertising budget is sufficiently large to support the creation of a stand-alone structure with separate reporting and financial policies. Assuming your budget is less than that of the country’s largest advertisers, here are several suggestions:

• Insist all agencies are present at key brand and business planning sessions.

• Incent the team for presenting and implementing wholly-integrated programs that produce the results you seek

• Explore all avenues for a single, consolidated P&L