Google Firestarters #3: The OS of the future for agencies?
At Google UK we wouldn't presume to know the answer to this question. So for our third Firestarters event in our London office we invited three points of view from Mel Exon of BBH Labs, Martin Bailie of Glue Isobar and James Caig of MEC. In theory, this means we had points of view from an advertising agency, a digital agency and a media agency, although as we've found at previous Firestarters, the discussion rather undermines any neat division between agency types. The event was hosted by Andy Griffin from Google UK’s Agency Team and curated as usual by the Neil Perkin of Only Dead Fish.
The three providing 'provocation' agreed that the question raises two big and different issues: the organisation and the output; what you do and how you do it. And they also agreed on the importance of culture and people to shape 'how' you do things and improve the 'what' that your agency produces.
Mel Exon offered a challenge and some hope. It's no longer possible for marketers to buy their way into people's attention. They have to provide something properly useful, or properly entertaining, or just ‘epic’ to avoid ending up unseen and unheard, she argued. Yet the opportunities offered by the pace of change in technology make this the most exciting time ever to be working in marketing. She urged agencies to foster 'renaissance (wo)men' - people who assume whatever they can come up with will, through developing technology, be possible, rather than limiting their ambitions. She put it bluntly: marketing should become so entertaining or useful that it becomes indistinguishable from the product or platform it promotes.
Martin Bailie had a different take - more challenging to the status quo of agencies but arguably also more risky. He suggested there was an opportunities for marketing agencies to diversify and start selling ideas and digital products directly to the end consumer. Building on Mel's idea of providing something useful or entertaining, but also turning this into its own revenue stream for the agency. He argued that this would improve an agency's skills, business understanding, credibility, and also help keep staff empowered and interested.
MEC's James Caig told us that the diversification of revenue streams was already a feature of life for his agency. He looked to Simon Waldman's Creative Disruption for some suggestions for how to go forward from here: transform the core business, look for adjacent opportunities and innovate at the edges of your capabilities. For him, digital is already pushing the transformation of the core business of media agencies and most agencies on a roster are looking at adjacent opportunities, so the interesting area is innovating at the edges. He suggested agencies make a business out of their ability to spot creative talent and nurture it, or use the analytics skills within agencies to provide data using a freemium model. Again he came back to the importance of people - the operators of any new OS - and how to empower them, equip them and trust them to deliver future business strategies and creative solutions.
So if that's the 'what' the future operating system of agencies will provide, what did our challengers think of the 'how' this will work?
Mel suggested that a planner's inclination to aim for single minded communication meant the idea of a 'minimum viable product' should sit naturally. Paring down your offering to the bare minimum that can work is a core way of working for tech startups, so shouldn't agencies work like this, she argued? She thought nimble, task-based teams, assembled based on the client's needs rather than a traditional departmental structure, could deliver better solutions. James agreed that organising by skill set not department was the way forward, with teams focused but connected into the rest of the agency through strong communication. He wanted to foster 'entrepreneurial opportunities' - giving teams the power and support to deliver on new business ideas. Martin Bailie took this one step further, suggesting that while agency groups will consult on how to deliver the best outcomes for their client, creatively led agencies should focus on their own outputs - be that a client campaign or a product aimed straight at end consumers.
We hosted a noisy discussion among the guests following the speakers' provocation. Perhaps after all an agency's role is purely to add value through branding, creating demand for the product or service being marketed, rather than getting involved in any new product development? The debate will rumble on and I'm sure the subject for the next Firestarters event will fall out of the heat of the discussion...
The three providing 'provocation' agreed that the question raises two big and different issues: the organisation and the output; what you do and how you do it. And they also agreed on the importance of culture and people to shape 'how' you do things and improve the 'what' that your agency produces.
Mel Exon offered a challenge and some hope. It's no longer possible for marketers to buy their way into people's attention. They have to provide something properly useful, or properly entertaining, or just ‘epic’ to avoid ending up unseen and unheard, she argued. Yet the opportunities offered by the pace of change in technology make this the most exciting time ever to be working in marketing. She urged agencies to foster 'renaissance (wo)men' - people who assume whatever they can come up with will, through developing technology, be possible, rather than limiting their ambitions. She put it bluntly: marketing should become so entertaining or useful that it becomes indistinguishable from the product or platform it promotes.
Martin Bailie had a different take - more challenging to the status quo of agencies but arguably also more risky. He suggested there was an opportunities for marketing agencies to diversify and start selling ideas and digital products directly to the end consumer. Building on Mel's idea of providing something useful or entertaining, but also turning this into its own revenue stream for the agency. He argued that this would improve an agency's skills, business understanding, credibility, and also help keep staff empowered and interested.
MEC's James Caig told us that the diversification of revenue streams was already a feature of life for his agency. He looked to Simon Waldman's Creative Disruption for some suggestions for how to go forward from here: transform the core business, look for adjacent opportunities and innovate at the edges of your capabilities. For him, digital is already pushing the transformation of the core business of media agencies and most agencies on a roster are looking at adjacent opportunities, so the interesting area is innovating at the edges. He suggested agencies make a business out of their ability to spot creative talent and nurture it, or use the analytics skills within agencies to provide data using a freemium model. Again he came back to the importance of people - the operators of any new OS - and how to empower them, equip them and trust them to deliver future business strategies and creative solutions.
So if that's the 'what' the future operating system of agencies will provide, what did our challengers think of the 'how' this will work?
Mel suggested that a planner's inclination to aim for single minded communication meant the idea of a 'minimum viable product' should sit naturally. Paring down your offering to the bare minimum that can work is a core way of working for tech startups, so shouldn't agencies work like this, she argued? She thought nimble, task-based teams, assembled based on the client's needs rather than a traditional departmental structure, could deliver better solutions. James agreed that organising by skill set not department was the way forward, with teams focused but connected into the rest of the agency through strong communication. He wanted to foster 'entrepreneurial opportunities' - giving teams the power and support to deliver on new business ideas. Martin Bailie took this one step further, suggesting that while agency groups will consult on how to deliver the best outcomes for their client, creatively led agencies should focus on their own outputs - be that a client campaign or a product aimed straight at end consumers.
We hosted a noisy discussion among the guests following the speakers' provocation. Perhaps after all an agency's role is purely to add value through branding, creating demand for the product or service being marketed, rather than getting involved in any new product development? The debate will rumble on and I'm sure the subject for the next Firestarters event will fall out of the heat of the discussion...