As part of the Scope of Work survey, the WFA & Decideware explored the overall Scope of Work process, including the scope approval process.  Below are the results as well as commentary from the WFA regarding the findings:

Scope Approval, Work & Revision

What are the duration types on your scopes throughout a fiscal year?

WFA Commentary

• No clear trend is emerging on the length of time for which respondents engage their agencies.
• This is likely due to the number of brands within the portfolios of multinational marketers, which results in different (and sometimes concurrent) strategies on roster size, AOR or lead/hub agency, project based work and/or holding company level multi-agency teams.

Typically, how long does it take to get an original Scope approved?

WFA Commentary

• Although we have not specified the complexity of the scope in question, nor the budget level behind it, it appears that significant differences exist within the timeframe respondents can get scope sign-off.
• Around 60% of respondents can achieve this in less than two months
• But for approx. 25% SOW approval can take over 3 months. This naturally feels like one area where some multinational marketers could focus on to improve productivity.

At what point does an Agency have the ability to begin work?

WFA Commentary

• For just under 30% of respondents, their agency can begin working as soon as a scope is signed off.
• In most cases though, respondents need to wait longer until a PO has been raised and approved (usually by Finance, but in some cases by senior marketing stakeholders).

After a Scope has been approved, at what point is a revised Scope required?

WFA Commentary

• Alterations and adjustments to the original SOW (“Scope creep”) are often blamed for increasing costs of campaign development.
• In many cases these are necessary changes that reflect new information, dynamic media plans, or simply better creative ideas. In other cases though they can result from unoptimized planning and complex sign-off procedures.
• 44% of respondents do not have a set process for revising the original SOW and therefore it is no surprise that projects costs sometimes escalate.

The World Federation of Advertisers, in conjunction with Decideware, conducted a survey to provide a better understanding of how major advertisers manage their scope of work programs.

The survey was conducted as a partnership between the WFA and Decideware in early summer 2014. Nineteen companies took part in this global research with responses coming mainly from marketing sourcing specialists. Whilst results are not statistically relevant, they are indicative of the thoughts and actions of global multinationals within WFA membership.

For additional details regarding this survey, please visit: http://blog.decideware.com/wfa-decideware-scope-survey-series-1-0.