Digital Marketing Strategy--are you a modern agency?
In every panel, there always seems to be one person who dominates the conversation, mentioning great ideas that the rest expand on. At “The Modern Agency” seminar, that person was John Santiago, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Media 8 Digital Marketing. The main indication he was in charge? He dropped the word “agnostic” about a half-dozen times at the beginning and by the end everyone else on the panel was trying to work it into their comments.
I was interested in this session for two reasons. First of all, any lecture that is based on “introducing” new concepts to traditional marketers always has a great audience dynamic that I can’t help but observe. Case in point: when discussing the integration of digital media John stated “There isn’t going to be a ‘Traditional Media Buyer” and a ‘Online Media Buyer’ at your agency in a year--it’s just going to be ‘Media Buyer’.” Half the audience started to clap while the others recoiled in nervous shock.
The second reason I liked it was more personal--my agency, Espresso, is in the middle of a huge overhaul and we’ve been actively questioning and implementing a digital media strategy that’s in close parallel to this afternoon’s discussion. So it’s nice to see that we’re on the right track while grabbing tips from the other early-adaptors.
The one talking point the session kept coming back to was how to make your agency more effective. The dominant answer? Integrate everyone--from the intern to the CEO--in processes which allow them to really learn about new technologies and marketing strategies. From sales pitch to production, digital marketing only works when everyone is educated. At Espresso, we hold bi-monthly lunch seminars on specific digital and social media topics. (You’d be surprised at how many people didn’t even understand Facebook 3 months ago...)
Linda Jackson, Director General at OgilvyOne Mexico shared that the New York office has a program where the CEOs are paired up with entry-level employee “mentors"--the 23-year-olds talk about how they exist in this new digital landscape and the CEOs take note. Certainly different than the agencies of twenty years ago. She explained that everyone wants their office to be like Google--and why not? The new agency employee is so digitally savvy it only makes sense to have a work environment that’s complementary to their lifestyle.
John also echoed the importance of integrating the entire office in the digital marketing landscape--because in a few years it is going to be the only landscape. If knowledge about the new advertising platforms isn’t threaded throughout the entire company, you won’t be able to pull off successful digital campaigns or attract big-name talent. He suggested finding the youngest, most connected kid in the office ("the one with a MySpace account and an iPhone!") and sitting them down to learn about their consumer behaviours.
And what about the consumer?
Max Petrucci, CEO and Founder of Garage Interactive made a good point when he stated that all agencies are really just service providers. “We provide ideas and the platforms to execute them,” and the consumers take over the rest. The modern agency has to be able to know where the consumers are engaging with content and what they are doing--or want to be doing--with that content.
