If you do nothing else today, read the lead article in the newly released Razorfish Digital Outlook Report titled "A New Role for Agencies. From Breaking Campaigns to Building Client Businesses". Follow this link to the complete report http://digitaloutlook.razorfish.com/publication/xml/4837/13617/13617.pdf
This year's DOR is filled with many excellent articles, but for anyone involved with new business, the most thought-provoking is the introductory one by CEO Clark Kokich.
Clark explains that his primary role as an agency head used to focus on talking to clients about how to say the right things, e.g. what do we need to say to persuade people to buy our product or service? He says that today he spends more time talking to clients about how to build relationships with their customers -- what do customers need to know to make smart decisions? how do we reach customers on the go? how do we help customers share their experiences with their peers?
This is not a new message from a digital agency. Every advertising conference for the past few years has predicted that the future is in building customer experiences, not just in producing great advertising. Clark takes this message a step further by pointing out the impact this change is having on the role all advertising agencies can, and should, play within client organizations.
As I have noted in previous posts, many clients are simply overwhelmed by the plethora of new digital tools and how to use them to their advantage. In today's challenging marketplace, clients are not saying to their agencies, "How can you help us make ads or a new web site," they're saying, "how much do you understand about our business in order to help us build a bridge between our brand and our customers." The question is not just how to effectively use email, blogs, podcasts, mobile marketing, viral marketing, pay-per-click, user-generated content, Twitter, etc., but how to mix them with traditional media to create the most impact.
There is no question that the new digital environment opens opportunities to redefine and expand the role agencies can play with their clients. Clients are dealing with a laundry list of challenges – a struggling economy, competition from companies and places that they never dreamed would impact their business, a continued drive for lower costs, and perhaps, most frightening of all, a growing realization of the power that a connected consumer has over their business strategy and success.
Clark's essay concludes that clients need ideas that will transform their business and that now is the time for agencies to step in as a partner in setting business strategy, designing products and services to meet changing customer needs and wants, and creating new revenue models for their client and for themselves.
This is, indeed, a new role for agencies. It will not only require new skills, it will demand that agencies expand their definition of what it takes to be a great agency. The agency of tomorrow will truly understand how to help their clients find the ideal marketing mix of "creative, technology, media, user experience and analytics."
It's a new role for agencies. Frightening to some. A great opportunity for all who embrace it to its fullest extent.
