What's Next In Marketing

What's Next: Forrester Asks Who Will Thrive And Who Will Fail

Forrester has a nice new blog that focuses on agencies.

http://blogs.forrester.com/agencies/2008/04/the-conflict-of.html?cid=112887514#comment-112887514

There was a post the other day about which agencies were best suited to survive the rapid changes taking place in the agency business.

"Both Agencies and clients have asked who and what type of agency will best drive the evolution to a more integrated and ‘connected’ agency."

You can read the entire post here:

http://blogs.forrester.com/agencies/2008/04/the-conflict-of.html?cid=112887514#comment-112887514

You can also take a look at the comment I posted:

The agency best suited has nothing to do with size. It has to do with leadership. Leadership that understands that in order to survive in this rapidly changing industry that you MUST embrace technology/digital, as it is the tip of the spear in regard to how we can best help our clients truly target their customers with relevant, engaging experiences.

Sounds Familiar....

Several articles today about the AAAA's conference in California and how so many of the major speakers are talking about how the industry needs to stop all of the whining and self-pity about how tough the business has become.

"LIKE Cher in the movie “Moonstruck” ordering Nicolas Cage to “Snap out of it!” — and slapping him across the face to emphasize her point — speakers at an advertising conference urged the industry to stop wallowing in self-pity and get on with the challenges ahead."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/30/business/media/30adco.html?ex=1367294400&en=8c0adc5e6ea4fcef&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

I had the following to say when Adweek's "Just Asking" feature asked me two weeks ago:

"If you could change one thing about the ad business what would it be?"

My response:

"I would take all of the self pity out of the business. It's the best time to be in the advertising business if you are willing to engage with all of the changes taking place, and how they can benefit your agency and your clients brands."

Coincidence?? I wonder....; ))

What's Next: PSS

My friend Marc Schiller at Electric Artists is always teaching me things. He's very smart about What's Next and I rely on him to help keep me up to date about what to pay attention to.

http://www.hyperempowered.com/

We were talking today about the social web and Marc pointed out a really cool new function on the NY Times web site that allows you to browse pages from times journalists with their favorite feeds from around the web.

http://my.nytimes.com/ (Log in needed)

So if I'm interested in what David Pogue is reading/following, all I have to do is add him to the list of feeds I'm tracking.

With platforms like Twitter, digg.com, and del.icio.us becoming more and more popular, it seems like more and more of the content being consumed and passed along on the web is generated by those who are tracking what others are interested in, and so on, and so on.

Got me thinking.

Is the future of the web all about PSS?

So instead of RSS (Really Simple Syndication), we will all use PSS (People Simple Syndication).

So just like I pay attention to what Marc is paying attention to, is the future one in which PSS is how we stay informed about anything and everything we are interested in? 

Thoughts?

Dooce!!

One of my favorite blogs is Dooce, written by Heather Armstrong, an incredible talent.

Here's how she describes herself:

http://www.dooce.com/about

Her writing is brilliant, funny, real, and makes me smile just about every time I have a chance to read some of her posts.

http://www.dooce.com/2008/04/21/replace-other-song-you-had-stuck-your-head

This one is about an ad. The post is great. The ad is even better. Enjoy.

What's Next: How Traditional Agencies Can Catch Up With The Digital Wave

Nice report published the other day by Peter Kim over at Forrester about what traditional agencies need to do to "survive" the digital wave.

http://blogs.forrester.com/agencies/2008/04/what-is-the-fut.html

I know Peter and for the most part agree with a lot of what he writes about. Sometimes he's a bit harsh on the traditional shops, but this time I think he has it write.

If you are a subscriber I highly suggest you read this. If you are not, you should buy it.

It highlights many of the things I have outlined about What's Next for agencies in regard to "catching up" with the digital wave.

A few things I took away (and that the report confirmed for me):

1. Agencies need to build a Communication Planning discipline into the agency (unbundling media continues to bite agencies in the ass), and these people must have a thorough understanding of the consumers digital media habits.

2. Agencies need to leverage existing or build their own online measurement tools. We have a great one through our sister shop VML that helps track the "chatter" on blogs.

http://www.vml.com/seer/

3. Talent. Talent. Talent. While I was interim CEO of DaVinci, the new entity WPP is building for Dell, one of my partners was Trevor Kaufman, the brilliant CEO of Schematic, one of WPP's digital shops. EVERYDAY Trevor would remind me of how difficult it was to recruit good digital talent, and that all of the agencies, both traditional and digital, were fighting for the same, small number of people.

4. Training: Does your agency have an on going digital training program. My friend Marc Schiller over at Electric Artists runs what he calls "Cool School", in which he helps organizations understand What's next in digital marketing. How about your shop?

Why Advertising Doesn't Work on the Web

Bullshit.

The title of this post is the headline of a blog post from the MIT Media Lab AdLab.

http://adverlab.blogspot.com/2008/04/flashback-why-advertising-doesnt-work.html

"Maybe we can forgive advertising agencies who don't know any better, but an old-media perspective is also characteristic of many so-called "new-media analysts" who take an incredibly non-strategic view of the Web and analyze it purely in terms of "eyeballs" and a television metaphor."

I think the above opinion is an accurate portrayal of how most agencies see the web. They only think of it in terms of banners and micro sites and putting video online.

But to say advertising doesn't work on the web is a bit misleading.

A digital strategy should be the part of any marketing program, and the web is simply one potential component of the options available to a brand. The post goes on to say that search is the most effective online tactic (and is not Search a part of the industry of "Advertising"?).

Search is a highly underutilized piece of the marketing arsenal as most people don't understand how search really works, how tags work, etc.

Advertising DOES work on the web, as long as the web is utilized to deliver the best brand experience.

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.

Modernista.com revisited

Nice piece on adage.com about the new Modernista site, which I wrote about a few weeks ago.

I'm quoted in the article.

http://whatsnext.typepad.com/whats_next_in_marketing/2008/03/whats-next-mode.html