What's Next In Marketing

Integration? A new meaning?

Seems to me that the meaning of integration has changed.

While back everyone used the word to describe how above the line ideas needed to be "integrated" with below the line, and primarily digital, ideas.

Seems to me that now integration means the melding of all of the different firms that may share a relationship with a marketer and it's brands. Now that we've gotten ourselves into this unbundled mess, clients are looking for someone to bring together all of the pieces in a way that feels integrated, or whole to them.

What's Next: 21st Century Agency

Peter Kim over at Forrester's has written a terrific report about what clients are looking for in a "21st Century Agency".

If you are a subscriber you can download the report here:

http://www.forrester.com/Research/Document/Excerpt/0,7211,41433,00.html

The table of contents says it all:

• Advertising Agencies Overestimate The Role They Play
  Agencies Still Wield A Lot Of Influence...
  But Media Shifts Expose Major Weaknesses

I think highlights several issues that are plaguing the advertising agency business.

1. Agencies still think their shit don't think. They still think that it all starts and stops with them. Yet there is a ton of research that says that clients are losing faith in an agency's ability to help them navigate through the confusing issues they now face in regard to the online space, mobile, and other platforms that are reshaping the marketing landscape.

2. That said. clients are also BEGGING for agencies to step and and reclaim the role of key adviser on these issues. As those of in the business know, it's hard work keeping up with these changes. It's one of the things that makes it such an exciting time to be in the business. Clients want help. Client want to be led. They want their agency to be the first place they turn for advice.

But agencies have allowed themselves to lose this position as number one adviser. We must reclaim this position if the business is to survive in some sort of form that resembles the current agency structure.

"Media Shifts Expose Major Weaknesses" in agencies is all about technology. Clients want to know  that their team understands what's  happening, can easily explain it to them, and push them and their brand  in the right direction and partnerships.

"From Digital Out" Or How To Get Digital Ideas Everytime

When creative teams in most agencies are briefed on a new assignment, they often times immediately start to think about how to execute an idea vs. TV. This is a Pavlov like response. TV had been the lead medium for so long that some creatives are simply programmed this way.

Some do get it. I call them "Hybrid" creatives. Can't take credit for the name. Here's the post where I originally wrote about these types of folks.

http://whatsnext.typepad.com/whats_next_in_marketing/2007/03/hybrid_creative.html

We have a rule at my shop. Whenever we brief teams on a new assignment we always remind them to start from "digital out". We'll still get traditional solutions (which in a lot of cases are the right channel), but we are also always able to make sure that we are thinking about how to best use some of the new digital channels available to us.

It's a simple reminder, but one that pays off when we have a truly media neutral solution.

What's Next In PowerPoint...Still

I'm responsible for business development at my agency. A job in which I review hundreds of PowerPoint presentations every year. Presentations to existing clients. Presentations to prospective clients.

I find myself consistently reminding our teams to keep things simple. In general I think most people hate presentations, so the shorter and simpler you can keep things the better your chances of succeeding.

Guy Kawasaki, one of the early members of Steve Jobs team at Apple, write a great blog in which he writes about a variety of topics.

A few years ago, he wrote what I still refer to as the definitive post about how to put together a successful PowerPoint presentation.

http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2005/12/the_102030_rule.html

Good stuff for anyone, but especially for agencies who are on a daily basis trying to explain these complicated and confusing times to clients.

More On 1-18-08 From The Happy Corp

I wrote a post recently on the new JJ Adams (creator of the TV show Lost) movie and the teaser trailer that he put it.

http://whatsnext.typepad.com/whats_next_in_marketing/2007/07/storytelling-is.html

My friend Matt Spangler of The Happy Corp (www.thehappycorp.com), one of the best digital agencies in the country (his partner is Doug Jaeger, one of the leading creative minds in the digital space) write and interesting post on his blog about what makes the teaser so effective.

http://wigfu.com/memoirs/?p=13

Matt makes a great point:

"All those thinking about extending your viral initiative should pay attention.  This is not a marketing campaign for a product. This is a game.  A game you can play to make the experience of the end product more interesting. Just make sure that end product is sweet."