I continue to be amazed at the number of agencies who treat digital communication tools, especially social media, as a secondary, or even tertiary, consideration for their clients and prospects. Even though their clients have moved beyond them and are increasingly seeking ways to engage their customers at every step of their interaction in the brand decision process.
Agencies have traditionally focused their efforts on push-driven brand marketing to woo consumers when they first consider products and on promotional efforts at the point-of-sale to influence them as they are about to make a purchase. That approach assumes that customers move through a traditional decision process (commonly viewed as a funnel) that starts with evaluating alternatives through input from past experiences, brand messages and word-of-mouth recommendations from friends and family, then narrowing their choices and making a purchase decision.
Digital technology is changing all that. Consumers now read online reviews, compare features and prices on multiple web sites, and discuss options with total strangers on social networking sites. This information flow creates a new decision process where the evaluation of purchase options can grow exponentially as new input is accessed. Recent studies have indicated that while consumers enjoy this new empowerment for the most part, many are simply overwhelmed and want marketers to help them make smart decisions. They just don’t want to feel subjected to a hard sell. They demand a two-way relationship that is divorced from a one-way, company-driven sales mentality.
Agencies must development a new mindset about what their clients need and build a new model to meet that need.
This doesn’t mean that agencies should abandon traditional media. Despite the numerous predictions of the death of television, it is still the most pervasive and powerful communication tool a marketer can use. What it does mean is that agencies must begin to treat digital media tools, and especially social media, as something equal in importance to traditional media.
Too many agencies have stood by and watched their role and value decline with their clients as specialty digital suppliers have grabbed this turf and diminished their importance in the marketing hierarchy. It’s time for agencies re-evaluate their organizational structure and compensation models. It’s time for agencies to invest in social media through blogs and other digital tools. It’s time for agencies to re-define their role with clients and prospects as more than a creative and production vendor.
Clients need ideas that will transform their business like never before, and 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. Clients need help in keeping up with the increasing availability of new digital tools and how to use them to their advantage.
Clients need more than new ads and a new web site; they need to know the best ways to build a bridge between their brand and their customers. But that need is not just how to effectively use email, blogs, Twitter, mobile marketing, viral marketing, pay etc., but how to mix them with traditional media to create the most impact and build brand advocates.
It’s time for agencies to develop a mindset and model that truly meets these new client needs. If we don’t, the agency business is doomed to becoming a second-class citizen in the marketing community. And that would be a shame for an industry that grew up with heroes like Leo Burnett, David Ogilvy and Bill Bernbach.
