Agency Evolution – Staying Current
Staying Current – Agency Evolution
It’s a new year and technology is rapidly changing the way customers interact with brands – who hasn’t heard that? Is your agency keeping up or falling behind? You better be ahead or at minimum current with industry trends or you’ll be left behind. It’s time to be disruptive – stand out!
Too many agencies rely on past success and just assume it will continue – time is your enemy and your competitors aren’t standing still.
So you have another major challenge – staying current. There is so much to digest, on top of what you do daily to keep your clients happy. The key is to understand it can’t be just you. Everyone in the agency has the responsibility (and should be held accountable) to evolving.
Awhile back we heard that agency personnel would be dinosaurs if they didn’t learn interactive. Now it’s much more than that as digital has so many touch points. Not just a website, email or SEO/SEM but social media, mobile, UX design, analytics, video, and more. Your team can’t avoid building strategies encompassing these platforms, but understanding them all, ugh…..
Your clients (current and future) look to you to drive results, solve their problems, provide strategic campaigns, be a thought leader, etc. You can never commoditize strategy/creative and you get paid handsomely if you can deliver it.
You don’t ask your doctor (GP) to be a cardiologist, podiatrist, ENT, etc… Specialize – do what you do best. You can’t be good at everything and knowing your customer’s business (industry expertise) trumps all.
So how do you evolve? There are a variety of paths: recruiting talent, fostering professional growth and development with staff, partnering for capabilities, maybe even M&A. None is easy. It takes resources, and it takes time. But, it must be done!
Step one might be attending (not just you but staff) key industry events and joining organizations like Philly Ad Club, PHIMA, PANMA, MOMA, etc. There are numerous webinars offered weekly, books, content, etc. Your team must not just walk the walk, but talk the talk – evolve!
Clearly understand your clients’ customers – how do they digest information, how/where do they get their information, how do they interact, etc. From there you can best determine what your agency must be great at – do you have that capability in-house or do you need to get it – recruiting, partnering, etc. Evolve!
