This question keeps coming up again and again and I don’t think it will ever be definitively answered… or more to the point, I’m doubting the point of asking it.
I’ve worked on both sides of the agency divide (specialist digital shop and integrated ad agency), and have to say that both models are equally capable of delivering involving, integrated and entertaining communications platforms, as they are of churning out streams of non-engaging garbage.
What it comes down to is the people. Just as we talk to our clients about enhancing demographic/media spreadsheet-based views of customers with more human understanding and interaction (via technology), shouldn’t we also realise that the ‘agencographic’ approach is never going to provide the answer?
For me it’s all about finding people who understand the space and can grasp the big picture vision of “why we’re doing this” (they could be agency or client side), and have them lead the work on the overall plan of platforms, channels, inputs, outputs, metrics, etc. Once this is in place it’s just about accessing what capabilities you currently have (current agencies, internal tech, etc), how you get the ones you don’t (specialist shops, outsource, etc) and getting good planning, production and data people to pull the bits together and keep it on track. Who cares if they’re at a specialist shop, an ad agency, or internal?
As the space expands and becomes more human in every possible way, I think to be successful we’re going to have to spend more time on the humans we work with to ensure we’re all acting like the same ‘brand person’.
If I was a client, I wouldn’t ask what ‘sort’ of agency I had (until it came to how my execution/production $ was going to be spent), I’d be asking to see people with understanding and passion for the space who can play really well with anyone else, including me.
No comments:
Post a Comment