By Darren Gilbert

RADAR is now a full-service agency known for embodying creativity and out-of-the-box thinking with offices in Johannesburg and Cape Town. This is an agency that views advertising as having no borders. No limits. At this agency, you’ll find a place where people are the new medium and true participation in their client’s business is not only allowed, but encouraged.

It is this last point that has brought me to their Cape Town office to speak to their MD, Kyle Sarkas.

“When the business started, it might have fallen into the trap of a more traditional agency,” admits Sarkas. “But we soon realised with the amount of agencies out there and increased competition, we needed to stand out.” For Sarkas and RADAR, that opportunity to be different came in the form of striving to become true experts in their clients’ business.

Sarkas explains: “We believe that only when you become an expert in your clients’ business can you really unlock the full potential of great briefs; great strategic thinking; and great creative work.” To do that, though, you need to open up the communication lines between agency and client. That means meetings (as every other agency would encourage). RADAR, however, goes one step further. They don’t do weekly status reports. Instead, they encourage regular meetings.

This doesn’t mean they pick up the phone every day to check in. That’s managing. That’s keeping a client at arm’s length. Instead, RADAR immerses themselves in their clients’ business by having their client service staff at the client’s office most of, if not all, the time. “We have desks at pretty much all of our clients,” explains Sarkas. “Through this, we are able to get to know their business and its requirements – what drives them and what needs to be done to drive their business forward.”

The result is a closer relationship between client and agency which sees growth for both parties. And all it takes is a small tweak in the approach to business.

“You can’t really become an expert in your clients’ business if you are meeting around a status report for an hour a week,” points out Sarkas. “That’s the reason why we do this. And it’s seen in our people being roped into our client’s boardroom meetings; into their key strategic meetings because they value our input.” That very fact shows their approach is working.

And that is just the first part of RADAR’s strategy to fully engage with their client’s business and needs. The second approach is down to their client service structure. “We don’t have a hierarchy of client service on every account,” explains Sarkas. “We don’t feel it’s needed.” Not only is this not necessary, believes Sarkas, but there is another, less complicated way.

There isn’t a business unit director, group accounts director, account director, account manager or executive on an account. Instead, on the big accounts, the agency employs a senior client service person on each client, who spends time at the clients’ offices, and is backed up by a project manager at the agency.

It’s clean, simple, and streamlined for maximum effectiveness.

“In communicating along a long line of people, things can get lost on the way,” says Sarkas. That’s unnecessary. In fact, it could be defined as sloppy. And it’s not what RADAR is about.

“Here, anyone can pick up the phone and have a conversation with a client,” says Sarkas. “This is because everyone touches every job; everyone here is in to get it done.” This very outlook shines through in the way they spend their time. RADAR is intent on devoting their efforts to their clients.

This means that they are more under the radar than above it. However, that doesn’t mean they are out of sight. They’re just focused on the important things: like giving their client’s the attention they deserve.

For more information, visit www.radar.co.za. Alternatively, connect with them on Facebook or on Twitter.