Born from client ratings, peer reviews and global creative rankings, The Drum Recommends is building a more transparent, data-led way to match brands and agencies.
The Drum Recommends
Every day, thousands of marketers visit The Drum to track the industry’s biggest moves. But when it comes to one of the most important decisions a brand can make, choosing the right agency, many are still flying blind.
That’s exactly what The Drum Recommends was created to fix.
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“Our vision for The Drum Recommends is to massively improve the process of choosing agencies in three ways: base decisions about shortlisting on data; improve the efficiency of the pitch process; bring transparency of feedback to all parties after the pitch is over,” says Diane Young, co-founder and CEO of The Drum.
The first version of The Drum Recommends began with a survey sent to advertisers, asking which agencies they rated. “We collected all the information and published the analysis into books which we then distributed back to advertisers,” says Young.
As demand grew, the system moved online. Agencies were able to invite their clients to rate them directly via the platform. Last year, The Drum moved the platform fully onto thedrum.com to take advantage of its global audience. The result is now a database of hundreds of agencies, all validated through client ratings, awards from The Drum Awards Programme or inclusion in The Drum’s World Creative Ranking.
Every recommended agency has a Company Page “which they can populate with information about the characteristics of their agency, inspiring work they have done, and insights they have shared,” says Young. The platform also shows the specific reasons why each agency has been validated.
Beyond profiles, The Drum Recommends is now building a pitch management system to sit on top of the database. “Giving buyers of agency services a slick, data-led and transparent way of choosing the best agency for their needs while also being more efficient,” Young explains. “Agencies benefit from a clear system, more information upfront and better feedback after the process and the chance of being included in pitches run via the platform.”
While the database started in the UK, Young notes: “We are now featuring many more international agencies, especially in the USA, giving advertisers much more choice on the platform.”
As The Drum Recommends continues to evolve, its ambition remains the same: make agency selection smarter, faster and fairer, replacing guesswork with real data and giving both brands and agencies better tools to build stronger partnerships.
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