Musing on the ‘Top 10 Wish List for Agencies of the Future’
I stumbled across this survey, Survey Reveals Brand Marketers’ Top 10 Wish List for Agencies of the Future, produced for Sapient, which caught my imagination a wee-willy-winky bit.
The premise of the survey was ‘what would 200 chief marketing officers (CMOs) and senior marketing professionals describe as their Top 10 Wish List for Agencies of the Future?’.
I would add that given that it was sponsored by Sapient and was such a small sample size, the findings whilst useful and interesting aren’t conclusive in any way!
So here they are:
1. Greater knowledge of the digital space. With more than a third of marketers surveyed revealing that they are not confident that their current agency is well-positioned to take their brand through the unchartered waters of online digital marketing and interactive advertising, it‘s clear that agencies need to have a greater knowledge of the digital space in order to thrive. In fact, nearly half (45 percent) of the respondents have switched agencies (or plan to switch in the next 12 months) for one with greater digital knowledge or have hired an additional digital specialist to handle their interactive campaigns. Further, when it comes to an agency‘s area of expertise, 79% of respondents rated “interactive/digital“ functions as ‘important/very important.‘
2. More use of “pull interactions.“ When trying to engage consumers with their brand, 90 percent of respondents agree that it is becoming increasingly important that their agency uses ‘pull interactions‘ such as social media and online communities rather than traditional ‘push‘ campaigns.
3. Leverage virtual communities. An overwhelming 94 percent of respondents expressed interest in leveraging virtual communities (public and private) to understand more about their target audience.
4. Agency executives using the technology they are recommending. Ninety-two percent of respondents said it was ‘somewhat‘ or ‘very‘ important that agency employees use the technologies that they are recommending. For example, it is important that agency executives regularly use Facebook, Flickr, wikis, blogs, etc. in their personal social media mix.
5. Chief Digital Officers make agencies more appealing. Forty-three percent of marketers surveyed said that agencies with chief digital officers are more appealing than those without.
6. Web 2.0 and social media savvy. Sixty three percent of marketers surveyed said that an agency‘s Web 2.0 and social media capabilities are ‘important/very important‘ when it comes to agency selection.
7. Agencies that understand consumer behavior. Seventy-six percent of respondents deemed this as an ‘important/very important‘ aspect of their agency‘s online digital marketing and interactive advertising area of expertise.
8. Demonstrate strategic thinking. Seventy-seven percent of marketers surveyed ranked strategy/brain trust capabilities at the top of their agency wish list.
9. Branding and creative capabilities. Sixty-seven percent of respondents ranked branding at the top of their agency wish list while seventy-six percent ranked creative capabilities as ‘important/very important.‘
10. Ability to measure success. It‘s no surprise that marketers want an agency that can report on where campaigns succeeded, fell short and where they should be fine-tuned. Sixty-five percent ranked analytics at the top of their agency wish list.
My lightweight conclusions:
Well it’s awfully comforting for us digital agencies isn’t, as you’d expect from a survey commissioned by a digital business.
And doubly-triply-super comforting for those of us digital agencies that already specialise in the social media aspects of digital, given that this neatly ticks off points 1,2,3,6 and 7. (And for us at NixonMcInnes, where we hire on the basis of ‘Agency executives using the technology they are recommending’ too, so that’s nice).
But where does it really leave us? What are the gaps?
I think point 10, the measuring success piece, remains a yawning and tricky chasm between what we as marketers would like and what’s acceptably and reasonably achieveable right now. I hope that initiatives like MeasurementCamp are helping us take steps towards a better grasp of the measurement thing, but it’s a hugely complex task.
I reckon the other stuff on the list is very achieveable.
In fact, in the email I sent around to the team here at NM HQ, what I moved the conversation (or was it a monologue?) onto was instead the building blocks of professional services success that these wishlist items need to sit on top of.
Not the cherry-on-the-cake digital specialisms and cutting edge ‘Web 2.0′ expertise that clients also rightly demand, but actually the basics, the bread and butter. As I suggested in my email to the guys:
“However, I would add that this is built on top of a list of ‘What clients expect from all agencies’ which always includes things like:
- Delivery: they do what they say they’re going to, by when they said they would
- Communication: They keep me informed
- Honesty: tell me when they can’t do something
- Proactive: bring ideas to us, suggest things, don’t wait to be told or asked
- Responsive: can turn things around quickly, nothing is too much
And it’s here, in these much more mundane pragmatic areas, that we at NixonMcInnes are working hard.
The top list is well under control: that stuff is what we do, and we’re increasingly recognised by our clients and the client community for it.
But the bottom list, the agency-underpinnings, that’s where we need to do much much better…
As a small agency, our limited resources can be easily stretched.
And as a specialist in a new, complex and rapidly evolving area, how we actually deliver work can change on every single assignment. So these practical delivery bits are the pieces we’re now working on.
What do you think of these suggested client wish list items? Ring true, or sound a bit wonky to you?
Will McInnes wrote this on 08.10.08 –
It's filed in the Industry news, Marketing, Mistakes, NixonMcInnes, Strategy box
On October 8th, 2008 at 6:16 pm, James Whatley responded:
I think that’s a really well informed piece dude… Food for thought from the Whatley HQ for sure.
Did I say Whatley? I meant SV.
;)