I think we need to talk...

There’s been a distance in the relationship for some time. What used to feel like healthy tension is starting to feel like disdain, that endearing quirk is beginning to become irritating. Someone’s feeling misunderstood, someone else is feeling taken for granted.

Everyone's asking how came to this? It started out as an ideal set up. One side had industry expertise and the other had a selection of innovative tools and strategies for communicating. They shared an interest in different facets of what the other did.

From outside it seemed that they trusted and had mutual respect for each other. They gave each other the space to develop but stood together when the occasion demanded it. They were proud of each other’s achievements and their joint creations were often little short of astonishing given the budget.

But the distance between them has grown. One side seems stubbornly wedded to the past, the other seems intent on changing everything about themselves. The common ground, where they used to work together so effectively, seems to be getting smaller. Maybe neither of them want to admit it yet, but the time for a long conversation is looming.

Does it have to be this way?

The way that companies work with their agencies constantly ebbs and flows, but right now it’s a relationship that faces some very specific challenges because the nature of communication is changing at such speed.

Social media offers a plethora of places to share your story and agencies need to make sure that their clients understand the strength and weaknesses of each. No single approach is a panacea and expectations need to be managed. The client mustn't feel let down when market share hasn’t quadrupled within six months of a new approach being introduced.

At the same time, firms need to be quicker to accept that the old ways of communicating have been replaced. The success stories over the next decade will be the organisations that embrace the opportunity to engage audiences in different ways. Finding the right mix of approaches takes both expertise and an element of trial and error, and that’s where outsourcing is still an exceptionally effective approach.

Relationships constantly evolve, and agencies and their clients both benefit when they work in broad harmony, respect each other and give each other the stability to develop.

Maybe at the moment there's fault on both sides, but with some open discussion the situation can be saved. The alternative is messy. And very little gets done during a messy break-up.

Magnus Allan is a freelance communications consultant who has worked across a variety of industries.

Twitter: @Zatag1234