Most agency reviews fail in week three. Not because the wrong shop wins, but because the client has, by then, told the incumbent enough to make the rest of the process theatre. The scorecard exists to prevent that.
Our scorecard is six categories, weighted, signed off before the longlist goes out. Strategy. Craft. Commercials. Operating model. Team you'll actually get. Cultural fit, scored last and weighted lowest, because everyone scores it first and weights it highest and that is how you end up with the wrong agency for the third time.
The incumbent sees the brief. They do not see the scorecard, the weightings, or the shortlist until the chemistry sessions. If they ask (and they always ask )the answer is no. A review where the incumbent knows the rubric is not a review.
Week three is the awkward conversation. By then the longlist is cut, the shortlist briefed, and someone on the client side has remembered that the incumbent ran the brand's biggest year. We do that conversation in person, with the CMO in the room, and we say the same thing every time: this is not about whether they were good. It is about whether they are the right partner for the next three years.
Six shortlists, fixed scorecard, one transition plan. The reviews we run end on time and under budget because the rules are set before the first chemistry meeting. The rules are the deliverable.
