I don't understand

There's a million things I don't understand. Like why single bachelors of the male variety (aren't all bachelors male otherwise they'd be called bachelorettes? I think they are, but just to clarify I've put the 'male' bit in) always have black leather sofas and giant flatscreen TVs in their homes. Or why people like pineapple. Or why we just can’t all get along. And more in that vain.

But lately what I’ve not been understanding at all is why there is such a thing as digital advertising agencies. In particular why there is a need for a specific agency that does digital stuff. Surely, digital isn’t just another channel on the block, it’s a new way of thinking, of figuring out how to interact with the audience or customers or whatever they’re called nowadays. Of communicating. I don’t understand the need for the separation of the different channels in different agencies. I’m also looking at it from a business and outsider’s perspective. Why would I, if I were a brand manager, have different agencies for different channels? Wouldn’t I just want to talk to a bunch of people who understand my painstakingly hard work on crafting and living a brand, and help me communicate that message in effective and clever ways? I'm pretty sure people on the receiving end (aka consumers/customers/audience) don't give a hoot which channel the message comes through, they most likely are not waiting for your message anway (subject for a whole new post). Whether that’s through a viral on Youtube, a print ad in the free London Paper or by organising a festival in a park on a sunny day with lots of music and ice-cream. Hell, it could be through a song, or a book, or a iPhone application, or by word of mouth. Or Twitter, reverse grafitti or by sponsoring an art show. As long as it’s done in the way that’s most appropriate for the brand, by people who know what they’re doing from a strategic, creative and technical point of view*, why would I want to have specific agencies? That feels like you’re deciding what channel the message is going to go out on, before knowing how you’re going to say it and whether that’s the most appropriate.

So I’m not getting it, this whole integrated versus specialist agencies thing. From an outsider’s perspective, it strikes me as being decidedly odd, and very old-fashioned. Time for the agency of the future, a new model. Anyone want to start one with me?

* so that's the reason I can see for the original existence of specific digital agencies: you definitely need technical know-how to do this kind of stuff. But surely that's a historical thing, not a reason for the continued existence of different agencies.

[blogpost sparked by a combination of Tom Fishburne's excellent drawing on silos and Russell Davies column in Campaign of July 25th which I can't seem to be able to track down on the Brandrepublic website.]

Comments

[Linda Margaret]

Nice post. Not to mention, different channels attract different audiences. Vary your sales pitches, vary your channels, and bring in all the attention/engagement you can. This might be why they make digital ad agencies separate--in order to increase engagement with the online audience. This is easier to do online than offline. Consumers online can and do generally respond more easily (or at least more measurably) than offline.

[fran]

There are specialist digital agencies because at the beginning large mainstream agencies couldn't be bothered with the digital channels: budgets were too small. So specialists began exploiting that niche and with time became unquestionably better at digital than the big fellas. Lately however, driven by client demand, the large agencies have begun doing some more digital, so it will be interesting to see what happens next. You could argue that the big guys will wipe the specialists away, or that some specialists will be successful at defending their niche. I am more for the latter.

[Natasja]

@Linda: thanks!

@Fran: I agree completely. I know there are very good explanations of why this situation came into being. But that is no explanation for a) why it continues to persist and b) why it should stay like this in future. Reading last week's Campaign about mobile marketing, they're going the same way. I guess at heart I'm more of a generalist-kinda girl. I've seen it too often that when you people are experts at using a hammer, they think all problems can be solved using a hammer. I find it more useful to know what other tools there are in the toolbox to be able to able to choose the most appropriate one.

There's room for specialists and generalists, don't get me wrong, but don't put the specialists in charge.

[Rags]

Miss N,

Great Post. I've been pondering similar issues of late. Fran is right on - it is more of a historical trend, the 'old' agencies seem to take a while to wake up to the potential of newer forms of media outside their area of specialization. Has happened in Search, is happening in Online Video, will happen in Social networking. History repeating itself, etcetera.

The response of these agencies has been to typically buy out the NKOTB. The real driver is what you said: "Why would I, if I were a brand manager, have different agencies for different channels?" Spot On. In talking with brand-type people, they DON'T want to deal with this. And, the consolidation in agency-land has, I suspect, a lot to do with addressing this. Today, brand managers actually don't have to do this divvying up of attention themselves. A Big-6 agency will send in a bunch of people and concentrate on the creative/ROI/impact questions, and then farm out the work in the back-end and do the co-ordination.

If you look at the make-up of the Publicis and Havas' of the world, it is a fascinating story of seeming chaos. They own bunches of agencies, some of them competing against each other in cases, and often times specialized. Apparently, there is little integration in terms of processes, technology, methodologies etc.

This, in my view, is typical. A big-company approach to co-opting the changes, rather than becoming a true part, and moving things forward.

Is there an opportunity to create a different type of agency? I really think so. Probably should blog about it someplace, or table it as an agenda item for our tech dinner :)