Why Digital Agencies Aren't Ready to Lead

Ana Andjelic wrote an interesting article for AdAge about "Why Digital Agencies Aren't Ready to Lead" She also blogs frequently about marketing. Here the main points from the article as I see them. What do you think?

• Digital agencies know only about technical end of the game. They are not experts in marketing. What else can you expect if a person comes from the engineering world?
  
• Clients are conservative when it comes to spending. Old and familiar is easier to buy rather than something completely revolutionary. "What if it fails?" Is often the question, not "What if it succeeds?". Sad, but true.
• Credibility issues when dealing clients. While it's great to have fun, results and control calms CMO's nerves better. Social media is another jargon word if you can't prove how it brings in more money.
• Creativity is still only valued on the agency side. Clients want results. Execution is more important than your ideas. Is your agency a doer or a dreamer? Can you prove it?
• More geeks are coming into ad business. How are they familiar with marketing? What happens when you put engineers and artists under one roof? Who will handle the business? Does anyone anymore know (or care) how to sell?
  
• The business model will not take care of itself. This lesson is sometimes hard for digital agency people to realize. Being cool doesn't guarantee sales.

There is also a vivid conversation going on around the AdAge story about digital agencies. Here are some of the juiciest parts for you:

"I don't know who these "digital agencies" you are referring to. I have a degree in art and design and I understand creative. I have also studied the evolving world of marketing for 10 years. I partner with my client for strategic business solutions. And I am programmer.

This article sounds like sour grapes to me. Though, you did a good job of hitting all the false stereotypes. I am not worried about you and the rest of the dinosaurs. This economic meltdown already has put a lot of you out of business. I don't think I have seen a single Web designer out or work." Username johnnance01

"Digital agencies ( production companies ) are not ready to leave as they do not understand branding. They are tacticians that do not have big idea thinkers. It's up to them to grab traditional talent or be eaten." Username alanm

"It would make for a great little column if James March's exploration vs. exploitation concept aligned neatly with digital vs. traditional, but it doesn't. Not by a long shot. Instead you end up creating artificial categories and then using them to mount sweeping generalizations." Username unsettler


The more I watch what is happening around the marketing industry, the more convinced I am that The Future of Advertising is Digital Direct Marketing. What about you? What do you think that is going to happen?

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Shift Happens

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Shift Happens

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An Online Marketing Lesson From ArcticStartup

I made a decision today. It was inspired by a fellow Finnish blog called ArcticStartup. They are far more popular blog than the one you are reading right now. It is about start-up companies around Scandinavia and Baltic. "So what?" I hear you saying. "You are an ad man, and this is suppose to be a blog about advertising that sells."

Let me explain.

The only thing we have in common with ArcticStartup is our language: English and Finnish. ArcticStartup.com is run by Finns but written in English (Make sure you visit them after you read this post). Their success gave me courage to keep writing in English although I'm a native Finn, currently living in Finland, and working with Finnish clients. Almost all of the readers of this blog are from Finland as well.

"Why on Earth are you writing in English - along with lots grammar mistakes?"

That could be your next question. Fair enough. My answer to is that I believe in great content. I also believe that if you are still reading this post, you understand English pretty well. The goal of this blog is to educate. To educate you about possibilities of direct marketing, especially online. And if, and this is a big if, there is anyone who interested in reading my thoughts - then by God, my job is to deliver those thougths in every possible language I can.

ArcticStartup guys are writing interesting articles for their audience. Doing so, they teach a little bit of English and share the latest news on the start-up frontier for a larger audience than just Finns. Although, I bet their largest readership still comes from Finland. But they also allow Estonians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Swedes, Norwegians, Danish, Russians and anyone else who are interested in their field to join the conversation. That's what makes them great in their start-up community.

The moral of this story: Your audience will find you if your content is great. Make sure it is, and your marketing will take care of itself. That's the wonder of online.

What do you think that makes a blog worth visiting more than once? Please write your answer to comments below.


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Does This Make You Think?

"People often say that this or that person has not yet found himself. But the self is not something one finds. It is something one creates."

-Thomas Szasz

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Readers Choice: 5 Most Popular Articles From Timo Jäppinen

The picture is from Flickr user joeshlabotnik CC 2.0

Thank You. Sincerely, Thank You. Without you tapping this keyboard would be meaningless. This article here was the 30th article of this blog. It was published on Monday October 19th 2009. To celebrate - here are Timo Jäppinen's Blog: Top 5 articles based on popularity so far. Which ones have you read?

1. 3 Signals: Why The Future of Advertising is Digital Direct Marketing
2. 29 Tested Methods: How To Make Your Email Marketing Sell More
3. One Thing in Advertising That Sells More Than Sex
4. Top 5 Advertising Agencies in Tampere, Finland
5. Marketing Lessons From Motörhead

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Bloggers: What You Can Learn From David Ogilvy

After announcing David Ogilvy's book "Ogilvy on Advertising" as Ad Man's Book of The Month in October 2009 I felt compelled to explain why he is such an important figure, especially to you.

Why should you care about some dead Scottish man? Let me give you all the reasons, except one* why he and his books are more relevant to you than ever before.

As a blogger,

Here are 10 things you can learn from David Ogilvy:

1. How to write interesting posts. Posts that will be read. And re-read, and even shared with friends.
2. How to create content that captures your audience.
3. How to write attractive headlines - This is one of the most important things you can learn from David Ogilvy, who comes from the world of old-fashioned direct mail. He knew exactly what kind of words and headlines interest people, and which ones doesn't. Do you?
4. How to get people to subscribe to your newsletters and feeds.
5. How to make your readers beg for more posts.
6. How to illustrate your posts to gain maximum readership.
7. When to ask your reader to sign-up to your subscription.
   
8. How start your every post with a bang.
9. How to keep readers interest up when your post is long.
10. How to learn more about effective writing. He often refers to several communication and advertising classic publications which you can benefit from. You will gain knowledge from the world's greatest advertising man's personal library and mind, if you read his books.
    

*What about the one reason? It will only be revealed to you in his book "Ogilvy on Advertising"


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"The Internet is Direct Marketing"

The battle is on, because direct marketing is a controversial topic. Most people think that in today's world you can't use sales techniques and methods which have worked in the past. Social media has changed everything, that's what they said, until they read this...

"You can't fool people like you did in the past."

True, except you couldn't fool people in the past either. "The most powerful element in advertising is the truth." said, the adman of the 20th century, Bill Bernbach. He was also one of the founders of Doyle Dayne Bernbach agency, known today as DDB. David Ogilvy, Leo Burnett, Raymond Rubicam, Rosser Reeves, Bill Bernbach and Stanley Resor, the six giants of modern advertising, all of them knew that the truth sells. Otherwise they wouldn't have succeed.

"Isn't direct marketing like spam?"

Spammers send messages online without recipients' permission to do so. Professional direct marketers never send spam. Spamming is illegal, and it would mean the end of your career.

The professional direct marketers send highly relevant, anticipated messages to you that are informative, entertaining or useful. Never spam.

Direct marketing means that you provide your customer interesting facts and benefits about your product. Being direct also means that you measure and test everything. Everything is based on facts (the truth) - and you demand results.

A winning formula of advertising

When you combine direct-response advertising to a value based compensation model you have a winning formula of advertising. For an advertiser this is a great deal, as it is for an agency. People work harder and get paid better when delivering measurable results such as sales.

You have a golden opportunity

I've been battling over with myself about which direction to take when acquiring special expertise from marketing. Should I focus to branding, general advertising, sustainability and transparency or something else?

At last, I understood that the internet offers unlimited possibilities to a man who knows how to create advertising that sells. If you transform techniques that direct marketers have been doing in mail for decades to online you have this golden opportunity in front of you.

When my hero Drayton Bird wrote about direct marketing in his blog and said that: "The internet is direct marketing" , I knew I had arrived. Think about it. It's so simple. Online advertising is direct marketing. If you know how to create direct-response mail that works, you are going to be great in the internet advertising. Did I say great? I meant excellent.

If you don't know how to sell, I recommend for you to getting on to the bandwagon quickly and start learning. Find someone who can teach you. Remember that the internet is direct marketing.

PS If you need any advice or want to discuss more about advertising that sells and direct marketing, please send me an email or call me, I'm more than happy to help you.

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