Welcome to the Digital Marketing Inner Circle

 It is surprising to me that the status quo of the 4A model of agencies has largely remained unchanged for decades. They have evolved ... from the traditional agency offering full services back in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s into specialist boutiques focused “above the line” and “below the line.” Distinctions were made between creative agencies, media agencies, and more recently, digital agencies, with further distinctions drawn between disciplines like PR and now, search marketing and affiliate marketing. (Great summary on Wikipedia on types of agencies)

I propose that with the new marketing demands coming from companies, there will be a call for streamlined marketing services (specifically in digital agencies). These marketing requirements will be a combination of services, technology, data, insights and analytics.

And the services aren’t just focused on creative, media, PR, or search, either.  These new requirements will be in the form of strategic consulting, organizational structure and change management, business process re-engineering and systems integration as well.  The technology won't be just HTML, Java and Flash; it will include expertise in database and web technologies, such as CRM and CMS.  The data will be more than market research, and the analytics will be more robust than media plans and campaign modeling.  Each of the services disciplines are evolving to provide real-time actionable insights, so marketing is no longer a pitch and forget but becomes more visible, accountable and measurable. 

However, I think the key challenge for the 'new' agency will be having an organization that fundamentally understands this shifting dynamic and an agency that owns the responsibility to learn and adapt. Just as the Industrial Revolution in the late 18th and early 19th centuries facilitated major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining and printing.  I see a similar dynamic occurring in the agency world. It wont happen overnight but the tide of change has already started where more technology and analytical process is being leveraged by agencies.

Further, the next generation of agencies should also consider a new roles such as a "Marketing Technologist"; a hybrid position that assists us in leveraging digital tools across all our marketing pitches and helping establish/increase our technology and mobile literacy within the firm. I would argue that this is essential for Agencies to survive. I wrote a post a few months ago outlining the brave new world for agencies where not just the agency mission should adapt but so should the personnel.

So it is inevitable that agencies will shift from a services model to technology enabled models, where clients' assess an agency’s technology and outcome based capabilities within a pitch meeting. The agency that can scale without incurring significantly more costs, provide a consistently high level of targeted campaigns with rich reports and performance data will ultimately win more business and accelerate this evolution forward. 

I would be interested in those of you that agree/disagree.. Also if you are working in an agency that is doing a great job or bad job when it comes to tech literacy then please post a comment below and share your experiences.