An annual survey points to improved relationships between advertisers and agencies from last year, when survey results reached record 20-year lows, but difficulties still abound.

Madison Avenue is still adjusting to new challenges, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/06/business/media/06adcol.html
the New York Times, citing the Salz Survey of Advertiser-Agency Relations. Though major obstacles remain to better agency-advertiser collaboration, "They're saying, 'Hey, we're both in this together, facing a common challenge neither of us has a history with,'" says Nancy L. Salz, referring to the best way to use online, mobile and other new media. Salz is president at Nancy L. Salz Consulting, which has sponsored the annual survey since 1986.

Some 29 percent of advertiser respondents said they respected their agencies more - a historic high for the question. Advertisers rated the quality of the ads produced for them by agencies a 7.3 on a scale of 1 to 10; last year, the average was 7.1. Asked to predict the effect on sales if agencies were always able to do the best work possible, advertisers estimated an increase of 24.7 percent, surpassing last year's 22.4 percent.

Some 30 percent of agency respondents said their clients respected them more - a historic high for the question, and more than twice as high as last year's 14 percent. However, when asked if they were more focused than last year on client needs, only 39 percent - a historic low - of agency respondents agreed, compared with 57 percent in the 2005 survey.

But the percentage of advertiser respondents who said the relationship grew tenser in the last year fell to 17 percent - a record low - from 41 percent in 2005. Still, asked if there was more teamwork in their relationships than last year, the difference between the advertiser respondents who agreed (66 percent) and agency respondents (30 percent) was a record 36 percentage points.