The Future of Advertising Agencies -- Are You Faux Real?

I've been thinking about the business of advertising for quite some time and as a company we've been in transition for a few of years. And judging by the amount of blogging, postings, articles it seems that more and more people in and out of our business think the agency model is in serious trouble, and some think very broke ... perhaps beyond repair.

The pressure to change is coming from many sides ... consumers, clients, competition from companies that used to be our partners/vendors and, most importantly, the new landscape of marketing. It seems advertising agencies and marketing firms of all iterations are being boxed in from many sides. The result has been a mad scramble to react and, in my humble opinion, what we are getting is the the new "faux" agency. It's an agency that looks real and talks real, but peel back the layers of real and you find "faux."

It's the advertising agencies who have been doing branding, advertising, media and more since before the days of Mad Men suddenly becoming digital marketing experts, yet executing digital, like always, push content and forget about engagement. And then you have the digital marketing agencies suddenly becoming advertising and branding experts, yet they approach building a brand just like it's another technology void of passion.

In all reality, the ad folks know how to build a brand, but really don't understand how to execute an effective digital strategy for that brand. Then, the digital folks know how to execute technology, but really don't understand how to build a brand. The result ... confusion. And the real quandary is the clients. Whom do I choose?

Think about it, we have seasoned ad people, who have successfully built brands from the ground up who spew, even as an afterthought, the tenets of their craft. Yet talk widget, wiki, mobile, social, ppc, blog and the thinking becomes cursory. Then the whiz kids of digital can execute beautifully your online presence with the widget, wiki, mobile, social, ppc and blog. But when you ask them how to build a brand online, it doesn't go much beyond programming 101.

Now, we all know, we have this problem, but what do we do about it? Again, in my opinion, we all become real and sell ourselves as we really are ... no faux agencies.

I must be truthful, because at one time, I believe we were faux. We stumbled digitally. But we kept picking ourselves up and learned through the fire how to merge our branding expertise with digital expertise. How did we do it?

1. We did a deep dive into the world of digital education and we came to the understanding we can know much, experience much but true expertise comes through time and execution. This realization said, things are changing exponentially and clients need help now, not later.
2. We actively solicited and developed relationships with digital experts. We developed a resource base that gives everyone value. And we're committed to each others success. No longer are we competitors, we are now collaborators.
3. We peel back the layers of reality for our clients. We don't try to mask our relationships, we expose them. We tell our clients and future clients, we are a team that brings the best of both worlds (branding and digital) together.

In our approach, we are learning much from our digital team on how to take the confusion out of digital execution to build a company's brand online. In turn, our digital team is learning much from us when it comes to building a brand. It ain't "faux" no "mo" (sorry couldn't help myself). Everyone wins ... especially the client. That's my thought, what's yours.

Comments

[Greg Williams]

Neal, thanks for the comment, we're working hard to live the words.

[Greg Williams]

Faith, I appreciate your sentiments and hope you do enjoy my latest post, Social Media Marketing ... A Viable Strategy in a Difficult Economy? Also, I wish I was in your city of San Diego right about now, 6 degrees is a little cold for even a long time Midwesterner like myself. As you can tell right about now I'm just a little jealous...

[Neal]

Great words. I hope the action/result is as well put.

[San Diego pay per click services]

thank you for this article. looking forward to your next post.

-faith-

[Greg Williams]

Ron, the shaking is already happening so please pass the salt.

[Greg Williams]

Megan, "show me" lies in the business objectives. The success or the lack thereof in an agency relationship is driven by the the objectives set in advance. They become the lightning rod of effectiveness. I think the days of unmeasurability are virtually gone for the agency of the future (and present!).

[Ron]

I think that we are going to see more collaborations of traditional ad agencies and digital agencies in the future. They are either going to be working together and open about it, or one secretly supporting the other. Or even mergers/takeovers of the two into one new company. What ever happens, it's going to be an interesting few years til all of this shakes out.

[megan]

I think what we fail to mention here is measurement. Branding, advertising, communication, whatever your agency or firm wants to be or pursue, the only way not to be 'faux' is to prove that you are delivering results. So many ad agencies and digital shops talk "effective" strategies and/or tactics all the time. But where's the real proof and what does it mean? What are you measuring/monitoring and what are the grounds for your interpretive conclusions? Don't tell me you're "effective" -- SHOW ME! Then I'll believe you're the real thing.

[Russ Tate]

So true Greg. You've got your finger on the pulse. Everyone wants what everyone else has. Now the digital agencies are poaching the traditional agencies for talent to get out of faux mode and vice versa to even the playing field. Of that too will take quite a long time to happen - and then comes the inevitable consolidation. Meanwhile, I think the Fresh Fuel way you outlined in your post is an honest and excellent way to go make sure everyone, especially an agencies clients, win.