Agency2.0, anyone?
Seems UK digital agencies are having to rethink what being an agency in a Web2.0 (or a Reality2.0) context really means.
NMA (15-02-07) carries a story the I believe undescores the real challenges facing all agencies dealing with the digital dimension - when creativity and technology collides, who wins? And how do we bridge the gap between tech-solution focus, digital creativity and media?
This comes on the heels of the British agency DNA appointing it's former head on interface design as Creative Director. DNA's MD explained the appointment in a what I'm calling 'creativity applied' fashion outlining that creativity from a digital agency perspective means more than just creative 'product' and that this 'creativity applied' is becoming more about the creative thought required in terms of building technology based platforms and solutions for clients.
Naturally 'Creative' agencies see it differently - with one MD describing the gap as being based around 'it's the difference between what you can do - and what the consumer wants' (my emphasis).
A couple of weeks back myself and Tom de Bruyne talked briefly about this very issue - referencing it with the Reality2.0 thinking I had expanded on from Tom's thinking on Marketing2.0 and Web2.0 issues.
The big question for my money is going to be what will the term 'digital' agency mean? Why? Because we're seeing end of 'mindless integration' which means technology based shops are going to move into the 'creative' space more agressively. In turn, I believe 'Creative' shops are also going to have to make the leap to becoming more 'discipline' driven and look at expanding their strategic marketing and brand guardianship abilities.
Within this the final element how will media agencies like Mindshare, Universal McCann etc. move within the channel/discipline debate - will the continue to approach digital as a stand alone channel silo rather than a point of integration (thanks Tom!).
Don't believe me? Look at WPP - they've just launched WPP Digital as a centrally planned initiative to maximise pan-group digital potential and opportunities - spanning the technology-creative-media divide across companies like Wunderman, Ogilvy, JWT, Goodtech, Visible Technologies, JumpTap and Mindshare-Interactive.
This whole debate kinda reminds me of 'Funky Inc.' - the fictional, virtual, hetrodoxical company model espoused by Ridderstrale and Nordstrom in 'Funky Business'.
Agency2.0 debate.
Comments
interesting observations. the uk has been supposedly advanced in marketing comms but only if you mean fragmented into multiple disciplines and chanels. that in turn has led to an odd dynamics in this web 2.0 world in that digital agencies are under threat from more traditional channels. pr agencies are doing digital, atl agencies are doing digital, dm agencies are doing digital, even consumers do digital. digital agencies will need to radically change to exist moving fowards.
in any discipline/channel creativity without application is useless and different agencies are coping in different ways. carla henrdra ceo of ogilvy was recently quoted as saying she relies as much upon algorithms as creatives.
couldn't agree more Giles.
The really interesting challenge will be agencies finding their own internal balance and how the market 'finds' the agencies it demands.
Certainly from an Irish perspective we're seeing more of the digital 'gold rush' you described taking place. I don't know if looking at the UK for inspiration is a good idea - I feel the 'flux' that's taking place in Britain my actually damage the digital proposition of many of the less evolved shops and we'll have a reductionist by channel and by discipline approach to digital.
Just to illustrate you point There's a really cool pr agency in Dublin called thinkhouse that are doing really interesting work in terms of online reputation management.
www.thinkhouse.ie
I currently work for Space (www.space.be) in Brussels. So I'll share some of my thoughts about agency2.0 from a media agency point of view.
At the moment we have teams for each media (print, tv, radio,..., and digital). (I work for the digital team) But surfing the "2.0 wave" we are finding it dificult to stand up and ride it. The clear outline between all the media is fading and therefore we can no longer have seperate teams. During recent discussions we more or less agreed that we will need teams of people made up out of all different media work closer together. This way it will be easier to cope with all the changes in the media world.
I also find it hard to be creative while planning "digital" campaigns because of the distance between the creative and the media agencies. We plan and book campaigns with a briefing from the client and/or the creative agency. But we kind of loose touch with the whole digital strategie the creative agency has planned. Therefore we will have to work closer together with the creative agencies in order to be able to provide our clients and the creative agencies as much strategic, scale, .... advantages as possible.
So we will no longer be just a media agency. We will need more creative input to help us plan the best campaign possible. And this input, I think, should come from a closer coöp with the creative agencies digital teams. Together we will be able to create the best creatives, for the best position (website, blog, podcast, rss feed, ...).
Currently we are trying to convince all our clients and creative agencies that we work with to follow all the changes that this "2.0 wave" is causing, and provide us with more budget and super creations compatible with the possibilities that are now avaibable. Because the current trend in digital advertising spendings in Belgium and Europe are not up to speed with all these developments. It's time for them to paddle harder in order to catch and ride the wave!
The problem with interactive agencies is that they are set-up to build stuff. In web 2.0, the money is in creating and sustaining conversations, not building blogs or Myspace clones (Ning...). Ironically, interactive agencies are in the same position that ad agencies were 10 years ago. Wrong set-up, wrong people. Most of the big web agencies did miss the early boat when it comes to social media.
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