The helicopters are buzzing, but who has the best view?

Source: Flickr Aubergene

Norman Davies, in his book The Isles: A History, believes historians are focusing more and more to ever shrinking areas of history, rather than continuing to make sense of the wider scope of history. He states:

As the torrent of historical data expands exponentially, so, too, does the temptation to fix one's gaze on those tiny areas...

Sounds familiar. Companies are bombarded by the range of comms channels available to them, consumer insights to inspire them, and areas to engage with consumers in ways unthinkable only five years ago. Add to that the ever-increasing shift from the comfort of clear lines between 'marketing' and 'sales'.  The ever-present temptation is to fall back on what one knows or what one is exposed to most often, or what one hears from the agency partners who also fish in a shallow pool. Norman Davies continues...

As a result, 'Sorry, that is not my field' has become the watchword...

Students are raised on an a la carte menu, which never supplies them with a coherent picture of anything; and teachers are left picking n'mixing according to their likes and dislikes. The public has switched off.

When I read this, something hit me. It seemed to reflect the challenges that face brands in being relevant for consumers. Keep force-feeding the message and the potential consumers will go elsewhere. Just as Woolworth's Pick n Mix has gone, so has the a la carte menu of marketing services. They just don't seem to fit with where consumers are going anymore. Brands are more in need of a wide angle view of the world than ever before.

Agencies are re-inventing themselves. Some new agencies, such as Anomoly, are creating fantastic models that are challenging the a la carte menu offering.

Innovation is one thing though. Re-positioning is another. Media agencies as communications agencies. Media Agencies as digital media agencies. A PR agency that calls itself a 360degree communications agency - isn't that just a PR agency wearing the most fashionable look right now? Meanwhile in the digital space, everyone is a social media expert now.

How real is all this re-positioning? Brands are seeing through this more easily than you think.

Brands need visionary partners. They need experts in their fields but they need people who can advise them in shaping their communications vision. Historically this sat with the advertising agency, yet this just doesn't make sense any more if so many advertising agencies continue to think they can just add the veneer of communications thinking whilst still pitching the ad.

Brands want great people to work with them. Smart people. People they can trust. Brands will look for this more and more, and rely less and less on what shape/size/type of agency that these people may or may not work for. A core team of individuals to support them in their quest for the right conversations with consumers.

They will want people who deliver.

The more that agencies stretch to cover the high ground, the more exposed they might be on the lower ground where they excel in. Isn't the future about a whole new set-up rather than constant jiggling with the present?

Are we not going to be seeing the creation of new entities and working relationships built on small agency communities of trusted smart cookies?

Or should the visionary bit just rest with the client, whilst agencies just execute?

Comments

[Paul]

Hear hear.

No one can pretend to have all the answers at the moment, but the one thing we all know is that something new is needed.

Whether you are reading this as a marketing organisation that senses there need to be better ways to get involved with your consumers (and more relevant ways to have a financial relationship with them), or whether you are an agency that is yearning to give the freshest advice to just such an organisation, we all need to make sure we are genuinely searching for the right answers rather than paying lip-service to them whilst we suck the last breaths of air out of the old model until we wonder why we're suffocating.

Its easy to be awash with good ideas, and to fill the air with plenty of 'what ifs', but success will come when people are ready to put some news ideas into action and make the change happen, each in their own small way.