A multi-country grocery retailer’s long media-agency relationship across a home market and neighbours was up for review, with concerns over digital transparency, weak working-media visibility and pricing drift — but a full open pitch risked disruption the calendar could not absorb.
VA ran a closed, invite-only media review across the market cluster — resetting commercial terms, modernising the contract for data access and transparency, and moving to a fixed-FTE model — without the disruption of an open pitch.
Head of Media, Head of Marketing Procurement, Head of Marketing Category
The strategic problem
A long media-agency relationship spanning a home market and several neighbouring markets was up for review, with concerns over digital transparency, weak visibility into working media and pricing drift, but a full open pitch risked disruption the calendar could not absorb. The question was whether to re-pitch or to renegotiate, and on what evidence.
Diagnose & Design
VA ran a spend mapping & cost baseline analysis and market benchmarking across resourcing, remuneration, productivity and working-media value through the digital supply chain, then used AURA/FRC (Fulltime Ratecard Calculator) to reverse-engineer ratecard gaps and the AURA/Scoping Tool to frame the decision — advising formally on re-pitch versus renegotiate on the strength of the evidence, not on risk appetite alone.
Ecosystem & Remuneration
VA managed the closed, invite-only review across the full market cluster via incumbent partner challenge, resetting commercial terms, modernising the contract for data access, digital transparency and zero tolerance on opaque costs, and moving to a remuneration model design built on a fixed FTE fee with clearly defined client ownership.
Rollout & relationship management
Contracting & onboarding and handover, rollout & commitment tracking: AURA/Planner back-plans the reset market by market to preserve in-market continuity, and tracks that every renegotiated commitment — transparency clauses, data access, working-media visibility, pricing — is delivered; relationship management sustains momentum through the full reset period.
Execution Oversight
VA validated the revised commercials against current benchmarks, managed the transition with no loss of in-market continuity, and embedded the governance cadence that keeps contract terms and working-media transparency current year on year rather than letting them drift for another cycle.
Performance Measurement
Base cost down 14%, a further 11% cost avoidance from benchmarked terms, and 30% of contractual terms corrected to benchmark [illustrative, to be confirmed], with improved digital transparency and client data ownership — all without disrupting in-market activity; KPIs tracked via partner performance evaluation on a 90/180/360 cadence (today closure reports; full performance measurement on the roadmap).
Why VA
The best pitch is often the one you do not run. VA brings the commercial evidence to make the re-pitch versus renegotiate call with conviction, then delivers a reset with working-media transparency built in — without the calendar disruption of an open review.
Common questions
What is a closed media review?
An invite-only competitive review of the incumbent and a short field, used to reset commercial terms and modernise the contract on evidence — rather than a full open pitch that disrupts in-market activity.
When is a closed review better than an open pitch?
When the relationship is fundamentally sound but terms have drifted: a closed review corrects pricing, working-media transparency and data ownership to benchmark, without the calendar disruption and knowledge loss of re-pitching from scratch.
How is working-media transparency restored?
The contract is rebuilt with data-access and audit rights, zero tolerance on opaque costs and a fixed-FTE fee with clear client ownership — so the retailer can see how much investment reaches working media and hold it to benchmark.