Hi Valeria - Great list. While I work in a relatively small-ish agency now (40 ppl or so), I spent most of my career on the client side hiring agencies. I agree that most of what you listed can be serious problems in the client-agency relationship, however I don't feel that even in aggregate they are a sign that the agency model as a whole is broken. Rather, they nicely highlight how *certain agencies* are broken. Pretty much everything on that list can be corrected within the current client-agency model by the good agencies out there. Most agencies are guilty of one or more at some point in their lives, but the good ones recognize the problem, address it, and grow. I think where the model is truly broken is in the increasingly artificial distinction among agency types: digital vs ad, PR vs marketing, and so on. Aside from some specialties, most of those legacy distinctions are a hindrance at best and the clients increasingly don't care. Look at social - I just saw that MRM WW (direct marketing shop) is building GM's Facebook pages. Every agency is diving in, and the artificial slotting of agencies into this mold or that is where things are truly flat broke.

As someone who has been the new business lead for a social media agency for the last couple of years, I have to wholeheartedly agree when it comes to SMG's template RFP. It's got some great questions in there, and is generally worth a look for a brand who might be exploring social for the first time. But too often we've received poor copy/paste jobs from that template which betray a lack of either effort or understanding on the part of the client. In an ideal world, the client should be hiring a true partner and not just looking for a short-term campaign agency, as Steve notes in the previous comment. But even if you are sourcing for a shorter-term effort, take some time to ask questions about how the agency works, what makes them tick, where have they truly seen successes (and setbacks) on projects that are closely related to what you're trying to do (i.e. don't ask about social bookmarking experience...). Be creative, ask what matters, don't just toss a laundry list of "just in case" questions out there. Nice post Peter. Kevin

I wish I could have been there, but alas, work on the other side of the country came calling. I will definitely try to make the next one on the 15th!