A digital evolution for all media agencies

Media is evolving, well it's always been evolving, as everything does on this planet we inhabit.

I'm specifically talking about Digital Media here though, the industry that pays my rent and bills.

Digital Media has been around a lot longer than most credit it for, although in those days it may have been called Interactive Media.

But the growth in commercial interest in digital media, specifically from the advertising and marketing world has evolved the demand on digital agencies from a simple application and website build resource into a more expansive offering.

Agencies dealing in more traditional media formats are getting a greater number of digital demands these days from their existing clients and are currently finding themselves turning to digital agencies to fulfil these requirements.

To a degree, this period will only last for a finite amount of time, in my opinion, as they find their feet. Then either their parent companies will provide them with digital partners or, if they are one of the few independents left, they will employ their own staff.

Meanwhile the digital agencies will need to evolve their game in order to compete with this change. Some are already well on there way, others are still playing catch up.

It's no longer going to be a process of just developing and delivering websites. In order to compete with more mature media agencies, digital agencies will need to offer a true campaign solution to their clients.

This solution will need to offer clients advice and expertise on how to attain the most from their digital channel. Moving digital media production from a nice to have, to essential marketing and income generation channel for nearly all businesses.

Creating a dynamic and retainer based approach to digital media that reviews traffic and visitor journeys on a regular basis, evolving the site as required. Also looking at new possible sources for traffic in-roads such as social media campaigns and SEO/SEM is going to have to be something that all agencies offer by default rather just the larger, more marketing focussed, agencies.

The appearance of more Account Manager roles at Digital Agencies is indicative of this transformation already taking hold. The evolution is changing not only how the industry operates as a whole but also how individuals roles play out within the agency environment.

My role for example, I sit somewhere between a Project Manager, an Account Manager and a Production Manager. Liaising with the development and design teams about production progress, but also defining the project from the off and then communicating with the client throughout.

We are responsible for advising clients about how they can further utilise the digital channel and raise awareness of their digital presence. While this role has always had a requirement for an understanding of the technical requirements of the project and also a strong involvement in the creative process of a project; it now also has an additional requirement to be aware of all the peripheral actions that may be needed to take a digital project from the shadows into the spotlight.

What is essential during this evolution for all agencies, from whichever background they may originate, is that they don't lose sight on where their core skills sets lie.

While we digital agencies should evolve our understanding of Marketing and PR, we shouldn't, for the time being, sell ourselves as experts in the field. Instead we should still focus on our core skills of technology and creative delivery. Likewise traditional Marketing agencies, while they may acquire digital skills in-house, should, for the time being, continue to focus on their core expertise in the marketing field.

There are hybrids out there already, Digital Marketing agencies, but would you turn to them for a complex on-line web application, with extensive back-end requirements involving work flow modelling? Equally, would you turn to them for an extensive marketing campaign that involved multiple on-line and off-line requirements?

A digital media evolution has and is continuing to occur; we all need to adapt our game and understanding a little in order to stay in the mix.

What we need to be wary of is losing our focus on our key skills sets in the pursuit of this evolution. We need to ensure our evolution is complimentary to the industry’s natural progression and every growing maturity.

There is enough space for all agencies to co-exist in this digital future without stepping on each others toes.

Here's to a digital future for all . . .


Further reading:

Hyperlocal audience engagement - Digital Signals http://www.digital-constructions.com/blog/2009/08/hyperlocal-audience-engagement.html

Is social media the perfect tonic to pre-recession greed? - Digital Signals http://www.digital-constructions.com/blog/2009/08/is-social-media-perfect-tonic-to-pre.html

Digital brand guidelines - More than an after thought - Digital Signals http://www.digital-constructions.com/blog/2009/06/digital-brand-guidelines-more-than.html

Launch day - How do you promote it? - Digital Signals http://www.digital-constructions.com/blog/2009/04/launch-day-how-do-you-promote-it.html

blog comments powered by Disqus