IAA Conference And Why Most Agencies Aren't Ahead Of The Digital Curve

Article today about the IAA Conference in D.C., where apparently some of the big wigs in the agency business said that this digital stuff is REALLY important.

http://adage.com/article?article_id=126243

Now to be fair, I wasn't at the conference so I didn't hear this first hand. But quotes like:

"It's impossible for me to find an area of our business technology hasn't touched, and the rapid rate at which changes continue to take place is absolutely breathtaking." Tom Bernardin, Burnett.

"DDB West's Ms. Ross said consumers are the center of the new digital universe and it requires a major change in marketing thinking."  writing about Tribal DDB West President Elizabeth Ross.

I'm sorry. I'm sure these are really smart folks because, well, they got invited to speak at this conference. But if this was the content of the presentations, I'd be asking for my money back.

Digital is changing everything. Check. Where might I have heard that before? Oh yea, I heard it in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007.

I read another article last week about how video is the platform agencies need to pay the most attention to when marketing on the web.

I'm going to shoot myself.

Where is the innovation? Where is the forward thinking? Don't tell me that digital is important. I get that. I want to know how agencies are moving forward to make digital idea generation part of their everyday existence. How the hunt for talent revolves around finding people who get What's Next.

I can tell you that at my shop we are killing ourselves to stay ahead of the curve. It's not enough to say digital is changing the game. It's time for agencies to step forward and lead the innovation that needs to take place in the marketing world. Too often we let others develop the platforms first, and then we just jump on board the bandwagon (see Second Life or MySpace or Google Maps, etc).

How many agencies have as a part of their operating budget monies put aside for R&D? We do, and I'll tell you people get really excited about it. We want to be innovators, not just following the lead of others.

So shame on the IAA speakers. You should be leading, not just confirming the obvious.

Comments

[Patchchord]

Man...you had me until you said "Second Life." So 2006.

And I'm not sure if I buy into the idea of ad agencies of being able to effectively create these types of platforms. Leverage the heck out of them? Sure. Push and shape future development? Absolutely. But create them outright? I don't know.