Client-agency partnerships are easily compared to marriage. You date (the search process), you get married (the selection) and then you get started on the work and life together.

After investing a significant amount of staff time, energy and dollars into selecting a great new agency, clients need to set the tone for a productive relationship. RCG helps ensure that the new team invests the necessary time and resources early in the partnership to leverage the positive momentum generated through the review process.

ASPEN Plus is a results-oriented service that uses a Best Practice framework to help you and your agency partner(s) define expectations, clarify roles and responsibilities and create a foundation for quality work.

First, RCG consultants take an inventory of the processes and tools each organization has in place. After determining where there is an overlap and where there are gaps, they develop customized workable solutions, which are further refined through client-agency input. By using tools people are comfortable with, RCG gets a broader acceptance and more rapid integration into the daily workflow.

Often agency supplier teaming models provide an efficient way to integrate your new agency into the set with your other marcom partners, accelerating good communication, efficient practices and brand building work.

With clear processes and practices in place, the team has ground rules from which everyone operates. This helps feedback – on both sides – remain productive and professional.

In addition, RCG develops appropriate short-term goals so that both client and agency can measure their progress and experience "early wins" in the marketplace.

With both client and agency side experience, RCG consultants have the unique ability to make the process objective and reality-based. The consultancy's emphasis on cultural awareness keeps both client and agency acknowledging and maximizing the cultural attributes that attracted them to each other in the first place.

In the end, the appropriate resources are applied to the right places, which accelerates the partnership's ability to quickly and positively impact its business.