The marketing services community is undergoing yet another spin as the world’s cultural and functional landscape grows ever more digital. On one side, so-called traditional agencies continue striving to prove that they get digital with all the subtlety of an American Idol audition. On the other side, digital agencies are equally eager to show they can take center stage after years of playing support roles. Both sides fear irrelevance as the “digital” label becomes as redundant to marketing as the word “hard” is to “rock.” When almost every communication medium is technically being created or transmitted digitally, what does it mean to be digital?
You can see the challenge of this realization in how larger agencies are repositioning themselves and their digital arms. Large legacy agencies that excitedly established separate digital arms 8-10 years ago, like Tribal DDB or G2, are now figuring out how to reel them back in. What was seen as innovative then is now seen as damning evidence that your mother company doesn’t understand the digital space. Digital agencies are dealing with different ramifications of the same issue. If all marketing is becoming digital, and some agencies like Weiden and Goodby show themselves to be as creative in the digital arena as they were in broadcast, are digital agencies starting to look too specialized to drive big brand ideas?
For marketers trying to sort this all out, it’s best to avoid the labels of traditional and digital. They may have been helpful for understanding what these places did in the past, but they are not helpful for what they can do for a brand now. The world may be going digital, but that does not mean that digital agencies are the best choice for marketers going forward. Too many digital agencies got that title because of their expertise with a particular toolset – websites, mobile apps or social community management. The current rise of digital goes beyond the toolset. It is the influence on our culture and expectations where digital is now having the most impact. People who’ve never redeemed a GroupOn or tweeted a word are thinking and behaving differently because of the impact the digital world is having on everything we do. In that sense, being digital is no longer about a toolset, it is about a mindset.
Marketers looking for a partner who can help then succeed in the modern marketplace want an agency with a digital mindset regardless of their historical toolset. In a marketing sense, a digital mindset means:
Invitations vs. Performances
When you think of your potential customers in terms of an audience, you think in terms of performing for them. It’s your show, and they are there to enjoy it. You’re looking for feedback, but only of a limited kind — applause, cheers, laughter, boos. If you think of your customers as participants in your brand, you think in terms of inviting them to join with what you’re doing. Sometimes you’ll both be in the audience together, sharing common interests. Sometimes you’ll both be on stage, sharing new product ideas. In these and every situation in between, an invitation-mentality reflects the digital sensibility of marketing with people instead of to them.
2.1 vs. Ta Da
A traditional mindset sees success as an event, whereas a digital mindset sees it more as a process. The traditional campaign mentality treats each new effort as one-time attempt to get it right. You work on pulling work together for six months or so, then unveil it to the world like a movie or a book launch. The digital mentality sees a world that is more iterative. In the digital experience, you don’t expect to get everything right in your first version. You build it as best you can, and you expect to have to issue new versions to address issues or opportunities you did not foresee, or that may not have been there when you started. No success is expected to continue without continual refinement and improvement. A traditional mindset tends to see the world in discrete episodes. A digital mindset sees the world more as real-time stream.
Speed Skating vs Figure Skating
Figure skating and speed skating both involve competitions on ice, but success takes different paths. In figure skating, you are the best in the world to the extent that you can convince an influential panel of judges that you are the best. In many ways, it is equivalent to how agencies used to get ranked. If you won a lot of awards from judges who thought you were good, that meant you were good. In speed skating, you are the best if you go faster than anybody else. Digital agencies love measuring. They’re hungry to prove what’s working. They don’t only use data at the end to build the case study, they use it in the beginning to shape the work. Marketing will always constitute some measure of both art and science, but digital agencies look for inspiration from them both.
Architects vs. Authors
If I ask who wrote “The Great Gatsby,” many could tell me it was F. Scott Fitzgerald. If I ask who built the Empire State Building, the answer is both less well-known and less clear. An author takes satisfaction in literally crafting every word of their work. Owning the idea in the literary world means owning both the overarching concept and each detail of its execution. You rarely see books credited to more than one author. The traditional mindset has a similar instinct around enshrining the auteur. Architects, on the other hand, know that their craft requires collaboration across many fields. They put forward the vision, but recognize the critical need for fellow engineers, builders, interior designers, and a host of others to make the idea come to life. The architect parallels the digital mindset that naturally looks to partnership as the operative model.
Digital marketing is entering a new phase where is less about mastering the technology and more about mastering the cultural dynamic. The tools will constantly be changing, so the toolset becomes less relevant. The digital mindset is what will drive marketing into the next phase.
The Ryan Report 