Mondelēz’ Debra Giampoli Shares New Trends in Client-Agency Partnerships

August 1, 2016

Debra Giampoli often refers to the wisdom of Einstein when describing the current challenges in client-agency relations: "We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking used when we created them."

As Director of Global Strategic Agency Relations at Mondelēz International, she began her career on the agency side of the business. Since that time, Debra Giampoli has spent more than 20 years on the client side in brand management, marketing services and advertising roles within Kraft Foods, and now Mondelēz. During the last eight years, she's helped brand teams around the world build relationships with agencies and other external marketing services partners. Her strategies, experimentations and discoveries have contributed to a significant shift within Mondelēz — not only in terms of how the company now selects its marketing partners, but also how Mondelēz encourages the best possible work from a multiplicity of sources.

She admits that the traditional client-agency model was designed for a world that no longer exists. "The old adage of speed, quality and cost doesn't work anymore." While agencies grapple with strained profit margins, fee budgets that must stretch further than ever before, and the difficulties of attracting and retaining talent, they are also tasked to help their clients with far more complex problems. Debra Giampoli acknowledges that if marketers want different results, they have to do their part in leading change. Fortunately, she has shown that success is possible when both sides embrace more fluidity as they accept the need to transform.

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