"Agencies? They only care about protecting their ass"

A big debate rages on Adage about an article explaining why digital agency can't lead the marketing industry. This post is now heavily commented by the marketing community and has kindled other articles. The author manages the tour de force to alienate the digital and the traditional marketers alike. The debate is fierce, seems to captivate the attention of a lot of marketers but it surprising to see how it turned as a flame war. I think that a lot of the passion in the debate could be explain by the fact that the marketing agencies start to feel the same pain a lot of their clients and partners (aka the media) already felt for quite some time.

They know they have to adapt to a new reality where consumers are more disconcerting, more vocal, more organized and use the internet with more maestria than a lot of brand. So agencies have to help their clients in these challenging times and in parallel they have to get new skills at a record pace. Digital agency have to master the vocabulary of brand identity, image building, and so on to replace the traditional agency and become the principal interlocutor of the head of the marketing departments and the traditionnal agency are rushing to get the social network phenomena and the analytical skills to measure different activities on the web. My 2 cents on this debate? (I know who cares?) in a few months the difference between agencies will blur and will progressively disappear. What will stay from this debate? Almost nothing. And a lot us we will feel that too much energy had been lost in petty debate and in the process we forgot to keep our eyes on the ball. At a time where customers are more concerned about what brands are doing and less about what brands are saying maybe agencies should focus less on themselves and more on their clients challenges.

It is interesting to see how as agency we are prompt to explain to our clients that they are losing their power and control over their customers and still think that we are the best to lead as if our clients has none to say in the process. That is when the title of my article comes along. Last week I’ve had a lunch with a VC and at one point in our conversation he exclaimed : "You know what? I don't like people working in agency because they are only good at protecting their ass". It was certainly a quick assumption of an all industry but it remains that there is some true in it. Of course for quite a long time agencies are focus on getting tangible results for their campaigns like increase in sales or market shares. Unfortunately the correlation between marketing activities and tangible results were most of the time hard to made (before the arrival of the web) and a lot of effort were labelled "increasing the value of the brand" which justified the 50% of the marketing budget spent for the wrong reason. Today webanalytics and quantity of free tools on the internet can help make these correlations easier and as ephemeral campaign morph into long term presence and communication message into real added value services there is a pressure for agencies to be more liable for results.

It is a big paradigm shift and it is very difficult for two entities like a marketing agency and his client to work efficiently together when each has his own goals, his own agenda and his own culture. It was tough when the goal was to deliver a perfect message it becomes even tougher when the goal is to deliver a perfect service. Moreover in the past marketing moves were critical, campaigns cost millions and a bad TV spot could be a communication disaster but with the internet a bad move could have far more greater consequences. Not only because consumers own the web and could express their frustration at an unprecedented level but because for a lot of companies a move on the web does not only involve marketing goals it is now a strategic exercise carefully planned that will have an impact on the overall organization.

The "agency" model make strong emphasis in service to the clients sometime at the expenses of the final customers. When the final customers is more and more empowered the need for a entity in between (the agency) is less important. But some questions are now more critical : Who will be in charge of the final product? Who will be in charge of his constant improvement? Who will take the risk?

The need for people with great skills who are ready not only to lead but to be liable for the final outcome become then more important than ever. The agencies ready for this challenge, will certainly be the leader of tomorrow. But if they take that risk and become more reliable they will ask to be more integrated in the overall project and decision making process. Of course agency will still do project to expand the brand of their customers but new breed of agencies (and we should find a new name for them) will do project that challenge the old business model and define new ways to develop efficient marketing and technological projects. In this new environment more projects will start as some kind of joint venture between like-minded people coming from the corporation or the agency side and they will make strong emphasis in financial success and customers satisfaction as a final outcome.

Please Mr Big Brand improve my life...

Interesting blog post from Dave Haber and a good slideshow that accompany it about the expectation the consumers (or should we call them “consumactors”, “consusers” ?) have about brands. In fact it is quite scary to see the candor and the enormity of what they now demand fom a brand.

Of course number one is still “offer discount” so Price from the old marketing school is still “in” for the consumer (or let's be honest and call them “us”) but the the third expectation is "New ideas and thinking" and fourth "Create useful online application that provide benefit". Sure I feel good because these data bmake my last post more relevant but we also have to understand what went wrong?

Now we require from a vacuum cleaner company to be a mix a of our rabbi and Google? At the same time that we shy away from advertising, feel violated by pressure sell technique and sceptic about any commercial message we've never been so demanding to sellers and commercial company.

How brand will adapt to this new landscape is actully THE 1 million dollars question. Survive the tsunami that is changing our everyday life our social fabric and our existing economic model will be difficult for a lot of company who mastered the mass media communications but suffered when they had to implement customer care program and now should create the next big app. It seems that small developpers are more qualified to tackle this issue.

Any idea about what will be the next move?

If we want to change the DNA of marketing

Some idea to help Agency survives :

• Tell your customer: Help, don't sell

Support and lead your client to build services to uplift their customers even if it's not their core business. If it fits their mission and their values it could be their future business model.

• Copycat is not a business model

Even if you call yourself "Agency", "Interactive Agency", "Integrated Agency", don't take the old business model of traditional agency to fit the new paradigm of internet with real time communication, network relationship and blurring roles between marketer, consumer and brand owner. The old customer-supplier relationship is dead, now we have to build one team and think about a new sport.

• Forget about one shot deal

Don't rent appartment, build a house. Campaign are nice for short term gain but let your customer and their clients as strangers. Help your client build spaces where they will interact with their customers. In a long run trust is build by layers of valuable interactions.

• Trends are no sweeptakes

Augmented Reality and RFID of today are the microblogs and social networks of yesterday. Something new should not be seen as the ploy to pitch a customer. Sometime the travel is more rewarding than the destination. Go slow investigate, experience first hand, demystify, be smart and then share your experience with the customer.

• Tell your customer: Sell, don't advertise

Yes I know it sounds kind of paradoxical with the first statement. Think sale as a service, you help someone acquire something he wants, maybe some items he really found in love with. So stop teasing the customer help him get the stuff he wants. On the Internet there is no hurdle, no rupture only the one you create.

• Small is the next big thing

Tell your customer the truth :
- There is no economy of scale when everyone is different.
- It's expensive to run a 24/7 business
- Sometimes technology will make things more complicated... at the begining.
So adapt your action to the model and keep the expenses low. Go from "One Big Bang" to "Thousands of Small Meaningful Activities"

• Who cares about Brands?

Experience is everything. You could talk as much as you want, you could display your qualities as much as you want, you could tell me bedtimes stories as much as you want, I will not trust you. Give me a service beyond expectations and you will have my loyalty and I will let it know.

XXe Century Mass + Mass production + Mass media = Few Mega Brands
XXIe Century Individuality + Personalization + Social interaction = Infinity of Taylor-made Services

• Know where you stand

Your clients know their business, you know the technology and the new ways consumers behave. Don't try to be smart and teach your customers what they already know. They feel powerless because they don't understand their customers anymore, and they can't predict who will be their next competitor. Help them focus their business around the needs of their clients and identify the arising competitors that are coming from their blind side.

Anything else you would like to add?

Ne pas négliger complètement les bannières ?

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Faire le bon choix

Quel est le meilleur système, Facebook ou Google ?

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Sur le web tout le monde vole votre contenu et... c'est une bonne nouvelle

L'internet peut être vu comme une immense photocopieuse qui permet de prendre n'importe quel contenu, de le couper en morceau significatif pour des individus ou des communautés données, et de leur faire partager. Même si les problèmes de propriété intellectuelle et de piratage sont le lot de beaucoup de media la plupart des sites web sont dans une logique inverse et rêvent, ou font tout, pour que leurs contenus, leurs services et leur savoir faire se retrouve sur le plus d'espaces possible.

Pour réussir dans ce modèle de partage :
- Ne pensez plus en "site web" : pensez en terme de "réutilisabilité". En morceaux qui peuvent être réutilisable et accessible partout, sans que l'on soit obligé de venir sur votre site ;
- Ne pensez plus en infrastructure : pensez en service qui peuvent fonctionner autant dans votre environnement technologique que dans celui des autres ;
- Ne pensez plus à monétiser votre audience : pensez en terme de valeur de chaque morceau, de possibilité de diffusion sur le web, puis accrochez à chacun de ces morceaux un élément publicitaire ou promotionnel ciblé pour générer des revenus.

Le prix de l'immobilier va continuer de grimper jusqu'à la fin des temps au Québec !

Certains voudraient bien le croire, Paul Dontigny dans Les Affaires n'en n'est pas convaincu et je pense qu'il a raison.

Il est clair que les prix des multiplex sont trop hauts.

Il ne faut pas oublier qu'un multiplex s'appelle un "immeuble à revenus" où sont les revenus lorsque l'on paye un immeuble 8 à 12 fois les revenus ?

Après avoir payé les taxes, les réparations, les assurances, le chauffage (comme c'est souvent le cas dans les immeubles à Montréal), la publicité, les frais de gestion, les frais de comptabilité, le concierge et gardé une réserve pour des travaux majeurs et une pour faire face à l'inoccupation d'un logement ou aux défauts de paiement des locataires, il ne reste presque rien pour rembourser l'hypothèque même si les taux d'intérêt sont particulièrement bas en ce moment.

S'il n'y a pas de revenus en terme de cash flow, les seuls revenus auxquels on peut s’attendre se trouvent au niveau de la plus value réalisée lors de la revente ou du refinancement.

Cette situation a entraîné la recherche de profits à court terme qui se sont générés de deux façon : par l’achat et la revente rapide d’immeuble pour les plus prudents et par l’achat puis le refinancement des dites propriétés pour l’achat de nouveaux immeubles par les plus optimistes. Les acheteurs, qui ont acheté au zénith du cycle, se retrouvent à la fin de la chaîne alimentaire et seront les grands perdants de cette bulle immobilière.

La correction du marché va arriver car les spéculateurs savent que la progression rapide des prix est terminée. Ils arrêtent donc d'acheter, alors qu'ils représentaient une part importante du marché des acheteurs et se mettent aussi à vendre rapidement leurs immeubles qui ne sont pas rentables. Moins d'acheteurs, plus d’immeubles qui ne sont pas rentables sur le marché, un taux d’inoccupation qui remonte et des prix qui stagnent, l’immobilier ressemble de moins en moins à l’Eldorado du début des années 2000. Nous devrions rapidement entrer dans un cycle de ralentissement des investissements immobiliers et la loi de l’offre et de la demande devrait amener une correction des prix à la baisse.