The Ark advantage

Ark Advisors was named the nation’s #1 Agency Search expert in a survey fielded by Adweek and Mirren Business Development. Industry participants touted the exceptional quality of our briefs, access to decision makers and fierce commitment to confidentiality and objectivity.

In 2021, Ark Advisors was named a Top Consultancy for agency search and compensation by Business Insider.

But Ark Advisors is not only an agency review consultancy — we are a management consulting firm focusing on all aspects of the marketer-agency relationship. Our clients entrust us with the stewardship of hundreds of millions of dollars in billings every year. We understand that your time is valuable and that sound decision-making is critical; our proprietary suite of services fosters both effectiveness and efficiency in today’s fast-paced business environment. Clients who engage us — and many do repeatedly for a range of needs — benefit from the breadth and depth of our expertise, added value insight, and professional process management.

WHY ARK?

We bring expertise.: Ark Advisors has managed hundreds of agency searches in every major sector of business. Our rigorous process provides an educational and enjoyable experience that will result in the selection of an agency partner who will deliver innovative and effective solutions to help drive your business forward. We also negotiate your compensation and contracts, and we help you maintain the health and productivity of your relationships over time.

We save you time.: Agency Searches and other relationship management programs can be extremely time-consuming. How do you find the time to identify the best resources? How do you navigate the actual course of selecting your partners? Ark Advisors can manage the entire process. We provide in-depth knowledge of the marketplace and offer expert insights into the myriad of choices among today’s marketing communications resources. Because we speak with agencies every day, we bring timely insight into their respective leadership teams, clients, competitive conflicts, capabilities, talents, experience, passions, cultures, operations and costs.

We save you aggravation.: We act as a buffer between our clients and the marketplace. Once it is known that an advertiser is looking for an agency or evaluating its marketing resources, everyone (agencies, the media, etc.) starts to call, send mailings and request meetings. Most advertisers don’t have time for all of this unstructured and time-consuming contact.

We bring objectivity and insight.: We know how to translate our clients’ needs and expectations into detailed selection criteria. We understand the languages of both clients and agencies, and know the questions to ask of each in order to quickly and efficiently gain the necessary insights. We also serve as “goal-keepers” — making sure both our clients and their agencies keep their focus on the key business objectives.

We can save you money.: We are experts in Agency Compensation. We have negotiated agency compensation agreements and contracts for almost every one of our clients. We evaluate compensation arrangements against our proprietary database of agency costs; we know prevailing norms and industry best practices for compensation and can specify the contractual conditions necessary to assure productive, long-lasting relationships.

We add value.: Our proven processes, benchmarked data and extensive industry knowledge have consistently made our agency searches, negotiations and custom consulting assignments a “win-win” for our clients and their agencies.