Mitch Joel's Blog: Six Pixels of Separation, page 292

Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #144

Is there one link, story, picture or thought that you saw online this week that you think somebody you know must see?

My friends: Alistair Croll (BitCurrent, Year One Labs, GigaOM, Human 2.0, Solve For Interesting, the author of Complete Web Monitoring, Managing Bandwidth: Deploying QOS in Enterprise Networks and Lean Analytics), Hugh McGuire (PressBooks, LibriVox, iambik and co-author of Book: A Futurist's Manifesto) and I decided that every week the three of us are going to share one link for one another (for a total of six links) that each individual feels the other person "must see".

Check out these six links that we're recommending to one another:

We are all routers: a new empathetic internet and the orgasmic mediation that fuels it - The Verge . "Recovering from South By Southwest and the inevitable plague that follows it, I saw a lot of writing--but not much revolution. When tech goes mainstream, there's no need for a showcase of the remarkable any more. When that happens, the conference gets sessions with titles like 'Female Orgasm: The Regenerative Human Technology', which is apparently what happens when Ray Kurzweil meets an aspiring Buddhist nun (no, I'm not making this up). And according to The Verge 's Trent Wolbe, that session may not only have been one of the most interesting, it may even be a metaphor for the event itself." (Alistair for Hugh).

Friday Night Fright Flicks - Blip.TV . "First, a warning: this contains foul language, it's going to offend people, it's puerile, sophomoric, and full of cheap laughs. I nearly didn't include it in my links. You may be offended, and should probably skip the link. But I ultimately chose to include it, because it's a really good example of the democratization of media. These short critical reviews are actually pretty good. Sometimes, they're really clever. And they're a great example of what can be done with a video camera, good DVD ripping software, and some spare time. I think this started with Mystery Science Theatre 3000 years ago, but that show was constrained by copyright and broadcast TV. Sprinkle a little Fair Use Doctrine and ubiquitous broadband, and you get this. Now imagine what it's like to have to court critics like these when you're a film publisher." (Alistair for Mitch).

The "Indie" Journalists At the Center of the Bradley Manning Trial - Frontline . "Remember when every second story in the New York Times was sourced from Wikileaks? There were about two years there where you could hardly imagine how the NYTimes had anything to talk about before Wikileaks. One story the NYTimes has almost completely ignored though is the trial of Bradley Manning, the soldier accused of uploading the trove of classified documents to Wikileaks. While the mainstream media - who feasted on the stories provided by Wikileaks - have turned a blind eye to Manning's trial, a handful of indie journalists have kept a spotlight on the story." (Hugh for Alistair).

Fact-checking at The New Yorker - An excerpt from The Art of Making Magazines - Columbia Journalism Review . "How things happen(ed) at the great The New Yorker ." (Hugh for Mitch).

China's BGI To Sequence 2,2000 Geniuses In Search Of 'Smart' Genes - Singularity Hub . "There was a concern that the Asian system of education would be churning out way more smarter kids than the US. We would constantly hear these kind of stories in the mass media of North America. This notion that America must uphold its dominance in the world and that we should all fear these smart Asian kids who seems to care a whole lot more about the value of education and less about how someone is doing on their high school football team. Well, it has been decades and now these smart, Asian kids have graduated to become scientists who are now trying to produce these geniuses in a lab. Are you worried about a robot army? Are you worried about creating geniuses? Sure, we're a long ways off from that, but the first step towards that is sequencing the genes to detect some kind of similarity. It looks like that going to start happening... now." (Mitch for Alistair).

Would More People Use the Public Library If It Had a Water Slide? - The Atlantic . "You cold not make these types of headlines up. Strangely, this one is ripped from the headlines. Yes, in Poland, some architects/designers believe that people don't read enough books because libraries are boring. How do we make libraries less boring? Why, build a waterpark in the building, of course." (Mitch for Hugh).

Now it's your turn: in the comment section below pick one thing that you saw this week that inspired you and share it.

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On Leadership, Courage... And Sucking

It's the kind of thing that just sticks to your brain.

I have mentioned this before, but I am a huge fan of Kevin Rose's (ex. Digg and now Google Ventures) video podcast called, Foundation. The problem with podcasts - in terms of consumption - is that I often find myself discovering something that is somewhat older. I find it hard to keep up with all of the compelling content. I also find myself looking at the episodes of a podcast and choosing the episodes that feature themes or personalities that are familiar to me. Foundation is no exception. So, I jump to the episodes featuring people like Chad Hurley, Tony Hsieh and Elon Musk and hold off on the names that aren't all that familiar to me. I know the name Ben Horowitz... and you should too. Horowitz is the cofounder and Partner (along with Marc Andreessen) of the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (investors in companies like Airbnb, Facebook, Fab, Foursquare, Instagram, Jawbone, Pinterest, Quirky, Skype, Twitter and the list goes on). Horowitz has had a long and respected career in technology and Silicon Valley, but he's an acute skill in understanding leadership and what makes a great company. This conversation was published in November 2012... and I wished I would have watched it back then.

Courage.

There are so many illuminating moments in this short 40-minute conversation about startups, growth, the changing business landscape and the philosophy of business, that it would be impossible to summarize (so, do yourself a favor and watch this tonight instead of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills). There is one word that I will encourage you to ruminate on as this conversation unfolds: courage. Does your organization truly have the courage to make the right decisions (which are often the hard decisions).

Before jumping to any conclusions, please watch this:

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The Powerful Art Of Resilience

Let's start with a premise:

Whatever it is that you do, say, sell, produce and/or put out into the world does what says it will do and delivers on its promise. Nothing happens when you have a sub-par product or service. Once that premise is out of the way, how do you truly measure success? Many will say that it is about winning or losing. How many new clients you win or how many products you sell when compared to a competitor or how many more people follow you on Twitter or read your blog or whatever.

I disagree.

What most people don't know about agency life is the complexity of the business. It is a hard... very, very hard business. The majority of marketing agencies spend their days and nights pitching their wares. It is both an inbound effort (creating a unique name in the space, attracting new clients by demonstrating thought leadership and strong results) and an outbound effort (proactively marketing the business, public relations, awaiting RFPs, etc...). On top of that, relationships are critical. Knowing when certain pieces of business are going up for review, having friends in the right place who can bring you in and give you a shot and many more factors. It is both complex and quite ambiguous. The best shops don't always wind up working with the best brands and since true metrics (that run across the board) have only become a reality in the past short while - thanks mostly to the digital channels - it still is a very subjective process. You will often here both agency and brand people say this: "agencies get the clients that they deserve."

It's not about winning or losing.

That may shock a lot of people. The truth is that beyond the hallowed offices of the senior most executives in the agency, it is all about winning or losing. But, if you are the business owner, the entrepreneur or the senior most person in the agency, you quickly learn that it is a game (and yes, business is a game) of resilience. All agencies pitch, pitch and pitch all day. Some days, it works out and you win the client over, but for every win that an agency has, they have probably pitched and been rejected by ten other brands. One out of ten or one out of five is not a great record. So, on those dark days when we lose a pitch (and it does happen), one of my business partners at Twist Image is quick to remind me that it's not about winning or losing because our business is about moving forward. We just keep going at it. It is about resilience. The more resilient we are - knowing full well that we deliver on our promise - will be the key to our success. For over thirteen year, this train of thought has served us well at the agency, and it will serve you well: in your business and your life.

How resilient are you?

Some of my blog posts get traction. Others get digital tumbleweeds and virtual crickets. Some episodes of my podcast get tons of listeners while others fall flat. You know the drill. You may have started something: a YouTube channel, a Facebook page and Pinterest board or whatever only to find that no one cares and so you give it up. Seth Godin talks a lot about giving up in his amazing business book, The Dip. It's something we should all read and apply, but here's the thing: most people give up right before things really start to pick up. They know that they're delivering something of value, but because it doesn't get the traction by some arbitrary and pre-determined moment in time, they give up. Sadly. Don't be that person. Keep at it. Blog even when you think nobody cares. Get active on Twitter and push in different directions even if nobody is following you (yet). On Business Insider today, there is a story titled, How This Young Entrepreneur Struck Gold After Failing 15 Times. Read it and  watch the accompanying video. What would his life have been like had he stopped after failing five times? Would anyone have scoffed at someone who gave up after trying five times? By the way, Corey Capasso is only 26.

Our world needs more people who have resilience and less people who are worried about counting the wins over the losses.

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Where Content Goes To Die

Who amongst us is able to consume all of the content that we save?

Long before RSS feeds, Twitter, Facebook and more, I was a heavy subscriber to email e-newsletters (in fact, I still am). But I no longer have the same habit that I used to have. I used to have a folder in my email called "To Be Read." This way, I could shuttle those many e-newsletter over to that folder and get to them when there was a moment to read. I never went back into that folder. That folder is where e-newsletters went to die. After a few months, I realized how unproductive that system was. Now, I take the time to go through each newsletter - as they come in - and bookmark the key articles. I'm definitely consuming more of the overall content, but many of those bookmarked articles also die an unlooked at death.

One little piece of data.

It's amazing how one, little piece of data can wake us up to an entirely new reality. Forget the story you just read above and think about your TV experience. What do you think the percentage is of watched shows from people who use their DVR to record programs? The media has been told all kinds of stories: how DVRs are to blame for the challenge of television commercials and their impact. Well, how does this data point sit with you: 41% of recorded TV content is never watched.

Never watched.

Ouch. This was the news from Marketing Charts in today's news item titled, Americans Don't Watch 41% of Their Recorded TV Content. From the article: "Motorola Mobility has released its 'Fourth Annual Media Engagement Barometer,' containing some interesting statistics on TV and DVR usage. As noted by Nielsen, DVR usage has increased in recent years, leading networks to push for C7 ratings - and the Motorola study indeed finds that more than one-third of weekly TV viewing by Americans is recorded content, 17% higher than the 17-country average (34% vs. 29%). But, interestingly, of that recorded content, 41% is never watched, according to the study. The global average for DVR storage wastage is 36%... Nevertheless, DVR owners report spending more time watching TV than non-DVR owners. On a global basis, for example, they spend 7 hours a week watching films and movies, compared to 5.6 hours for those without a DVR."

Content wasted.

Consumers are inundated with choices. Their choices are highly-controllable (they can record, fast forward, delete, share, etc...). They're, clearly, not getting to it all (not even close). And, while us Marketers get all excited about new technology, new platforms and new delivery mechanisms for content, we don't (often enough) take a step back and realize just how overwhelming all of this choice and control can be. Imagine this: 41% of all content that people are actively recording, thinking about and interested in, they're simply not getting to... and that's just TV.

Folks, it's official: we have a content problem. What are we going to do about it?

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Writing Your Resume (It's Not What You Think)

How is your career going? How is your life going?

Do you lead a charmed life? Do you wish that every day was Groundhog's Day? Are you, literally, sucking the juice out of every day and accomplishing everything that you had hoped to accomplish? My guess is that there are very few people who can truly make these claims of unbridled glee. We live in an anxiety-riddled society, where even the people we look up to as the top performers suffer from the same stress, fears and concerns that the rest of us do. In short: life isn't easy. Being all Zen and at one with the quiet of the earth may be the daily spiritual ascent of monks and those fascinated with the new age, but for the vast majority of us (and I count myself as one of them), even a rigorous and regular schedule of meditation and relaxation is less about finding that Zen, and more about holding the anxious wolves at bay, if but for a few moments of solace in an otherwise calendar-packed day of meetings, assignments, pressures and more from both work and home.

Shoring it all up.

There is no clear-cut answer to happiness. You can read books, speak to a professional, carve out moments to find your balance and more, but in the end we all have bills to pay, expectations from others that need to be fulfilled and our own, personal development to satisfy. Even when things are going well and money becomes less of an issue of survival, many of us begin to look at what's next. Where is all of this taking us? What will make us happy now and tomorrow? When it comes to work, the layers of complexity are magnified. I am currently reading Lean In, the first business book by Sheryl Sandberg (of Facebook fame). It makes many strong (and some might say, controversial) statements about women in the workplace. It's an issue that I never understood, thankfully, because I entered the workplace without having knowledge that there was a time and place when women weren't welcome. I also chose work environments where there was always a near-even balance between men and women (and lots of diversity, I might add). In the handful of positions that I have held, two of those instances had me working for women bosses. I recall being at chamber of commerce event over a decade ago and someone asking me what it was like to have a woman for a boss. That question stopped me dead in my tracks. It was never even a thought in my mind, and it was also something that I didn't realize would be on someone else's mind. Sadly, it turns out that I may be in the minority.

What's a woman (and man) to do?   

Several months ago, I had the honor of speaking to the senior-most marketers of Mattel (Barbie, Hot Wheels, Matchbox, etc...). During dinner, there was an "Inside The Actor's Studio" component with three members of the leadership team. All of them were women. During the Q&A segment, one of the team members asked these leaders for the one piece of advice that has always stuck with them. One person on the panel said that her father told her as she entered the workforce this: "Remember, every day you are writing your resume."

Every day you are writing your resume.

What seemed like powerful advice from a loving father to a very business-driven daughter is a line that transcends gender, race, skill level and occupation. We worry about what how complete our LinkedIn profiles are. We spend countless hours gossiping about company policies or others within our own team. We're worried with everybody else's level of compensation and acknowledgements, when - in reality - so few of us spend much time - each and every day - making sure that we're writing our own resume.

There are power in words. There are power in actions.

Not a day goes by since hearing that story in late January that those words don't ring in my head. Multiple times a day. For me, it has become a key driver in focus and in creating the future that I hope to have. It certainly does take away the lazy and makes me choose activities that can help me write a better resume - whether it's spending thirty minutes on a stationary bike instead of watching Auction Kings or writing a blog post instead of getting lost in Facebook's newsfeed or thinking up a strategy for a client at Twist Image instead of wondering who I am meeting for lunch. Choices. We all make choices. If I'm going to spend the majority of my waking hours thinking about the business, it may as well have the hue of writing a better resume for myself anchored to it.

So, what are you doing to write your own resume every day? What words inspire you daily to do more?

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You Must Read This!

What has become of the words that we read?

There are many converging forces that could lead you to believe that the skilled craft of formulating words that raises the general public's IQ, informs the world and inspires us to be more - on many levels - is all but fading. It turns out that we are a nation no longer interested in depth and discourse around the topics of the day, but would much prefer to share a meme that involves an obscure character from the cult classic film, The Princess Bride on Facebook than we are in sharing an article about the advancements in micro 3D printing that could lead to many massive implications in terms of both how we manufacture products and how we can improve healthcare. Sure, one of those ideas plays in the shallow end of the intellectual pool, while the other one is more for the deep-end, but it turns out that in a world of 140-characters (thank you, very much, Twitter), the vast majority of the population isn't taking advantage of all of these published words... we're much more interested in what gets a click, share, plus one, tweet, and more (and, that's not the hefty stuff).

She's so heavy.

Is it any surprise that flashy headlines and fake celebrity death memes on Twitter get so much attention? From the early days of blogging, the content that got the most clicks were the ones with the catchy headlines. Some might argue that Huffington Post banks on this type of content in a race for attention and search engine optimization. The truth is that Huffington Post is not alone. It's not only competing with the regular slew of online publishers and traditional publishers trying to figure out how the digitization of media has forced their way to rethink publishing, but they are now competing with you and I - the new publishers of content. Can you stand back and be the consumer for just a moment? We used to live in a digital world where AOL or Yahoo acted as our homepage/gateway to the Internet. These pages were carefully crafted and edited to ensure that you would not only come back, but that you would make it your personal destination of choice. Now, we have shifted towards our own Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter profile pages as our gateway to the world.

Welcome to Digital Narcissism.

In this era of digital narcissism, where our gateway to content is through the lens of the people we like and admire most, traditional and digital publishers must now grasp for attention in an even flashier way. They are no longer just competing with one another for your attention, but they're facing a most powerful adversary in the struggle for attention: your friends and acquaintances. Now, stories like, "The 10 People On Twitter You Must Follow" are competing alongside your best friend who tweets out, "you have got to check this out..." with a link to whatever it is that has caught their attention.

Who do you think wins?

It turns out that we have to be careful in these brave new times. Earlier this week, The Pew Research Center released a new report, The State of the News Media 2013 looking at the current state of American Journalism. Poynter has an excellent recap of the report with some additional insight in their news item, State of the News Media 2013 shows how industry is responding to 'continued erosion' of resources. Some key findings in the Pew Research Center are:

Digital advertising is growing very slowly at only three percent and is not able to compensate for the loss of print revenue. For every dollar gained in digital, print loses $16.

Print advertising continue to fall. It is down $1.5 billion in 2012.

The bleeding in print has transcended the losses in classified advertising. National advertising dropped nearly ten percent.

The silver lining.

The silver lining in these times of purgatory for traditional media may be the uptick and growth for smartphone and tablet users - which continues to grow in readership at a strong pace - but is struggling to find the advertising revenue that supports this model. Poynter calls the revenue for smartphones and tablets "largely a no-show." Ouch.

The bigger problem.

The idea that we're consuming content in 140 characters and driven by wild headlines is not a divergent concept in relation to the state of news media in 2013 as Pew Research Center has laid out. In fact, if you combine these two thoughts, you may find yourself staring down the barrel of a very boring gun. From the Poynter article: "The toughest news comes in the digital chapter, where Pew researchers found that the big dogs -- Google and Facebook -- have staked out the growing ad segments of mobile and video. Google is now the leader is digital display advertising as well as search. And if, as analyst Gordon Borrell and others predict, the next big thing is local advertising targeted to preferences revealed by a person's Internet choices, one has to believe Google and the others have awesome artillery in hand." For the record, Google nor Facebook employ journalists in a newsroom, do they?

Be careful of the content you consume.

If you record Charlie Rose on your DVR as a way to cleanse all that Dancing With The Stars that you're watching, imagine what your digital consumption might say about you. We are all drowning in a sea of tweets, links, status updates and more that may keep us informed of our broader social graph, but is probably not making any of us that much smarter or expanding our world view beyond our own myopic borders. As traditional media outlets struggle to maintain a viable business model and the online publishers battle to compete for attention while generating income from the banner ads or sponsored content that they're producing, we could well find ourselves in a world where the depth and breadth of text-based content gets drowned out by everything that was just mentioned above along with the massive growth of online video, audio and more. According to the MediaPost news item, Nearly 4 Billion Minutes Of Video Ads Streamed In February: "Continuing to break records, U.S. consumers spent 3.8 billion minutes streaming video advertising in February. Consumers viewed 9.9 billion video ads, last month, with Google sites (YouTube) serving an all-time high of 2.2 billion ads, comScore found." How long do you think the average video view is on YouTube? Further proof that we're not getting too much depth? Perhaps all this fast, free and short form content has actually changed the news consumer. Perhaps we are no longer digging deeper into issues and have taken on the speed of information exchange as the the true value? Still, it feels like something is missing. As the discourse changes and everyone publishes more and more across multiple platforms in front of different screens, we could well be at the very beginning of the end of written content as we have known it to date. If you made it this far, you may be one of the last few who want to dig a little deeper and, it may well be a good skill to start instilling in others.

Content as we know it is radically changing and adapting to a new time. Will you miss a world of long-form text?

The above posting is my twice-monthly column for The Huffington Post called, Media Hacker . I cross-post it here with all the links and tags for your reading pleasure, but you can check out the original version online here:

Huffington Post - Welcome to Digital Narcissism .

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Hacking The Media (Again)

Episode #349 of Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to.

We are getting more regular when it comes to recording Media Hacks. In this semi-frequent podcast within this podcast we hold a roundtable conversation with Chris Brogan, C.C. Chapman, Hugh McGuire, Christopher S. Penn,  Julien Smith and myself. We had a good run, but life became what it is, and it became a ruthless game of herding the unherdable cats. Well, thanks to Doodle, we're starting to get back into a flow with it. Welcome to episode #42 of Media Hacks. Unfortunately, Penn was not able to make the recording (and Smith jumped in mid-chat), but it's still chock-full of gabbing and inside baseball about everything from Internet culture and technology news to why the majority of us did not attend SXSW (but should have) and how tired some of us are of social media (and some who aren't). Enjoy the conversation...

You can grab the latest episode of Six Pixels of Separation here (or feel free to subscribe via iTunes): Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast #349.

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Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #143

Is there one link, story, picture or thought that you saw online this week that you think somebody you know must see?

My friends: Alistair Croll (BitCurrent, Year One Labs, GigaOM, Human 2.0, the author of Complete Web Monitoring, Managing Bandwidth: Deploying QOS in Enterprise Networks and Lean Analytics), Hugh McGuire (PressBooks, LibriVox, iambik) and I decided that every week or so the three of us are going to share one link for one another (for a total of six links) that each individual feels the other person "must see".

Check out these six links that we're recommending to one another:

Parsley Fern Slide . "I mentioned this in passing at lunch today (which was long overdue, BTW!) The GoPro HD camera is cropping up everywhere, from a drone I saw flying over SXSW last week to referees' heads at sporting events. Here's an ice climber. You can imagine what happens next. William Gibson said that the future is here, it's just not evenly distributed. What will life be like when everyone records everything? Consider the legal, insurance, and liability consequences of this video alone. Also, you may not want to go ice climbing after this." (Alistair for Hugh).

How One Dad Got Lawn Darts Banned - Mental Floss . "Sometimes, when I'm surfing, I wind up in weird places. I'm sure you guys remember those giant lawn darts from our childhood. They were banned, thanks largely to the efforts of one grieving parent. This is that story--and it's doubly tragic, because the number of injuries due to the toy was grossly understated. Say what you will about our connected culture, but it's hard to imagine something like this happening in a world where the story would fly to the top of reddit or be widely shared on Facebook ." (Alistair for Mitch).

This is What Happens When You Run Water Through a 24hz Sine Wave - Colossal . "Sine waves, big speakers, and a water spout. Then science takes over. All you physics teachers out there, here's how to spend a great spring afternoon with your students." (Hugh for Alistair).

This column will change your life: Helsinki Bus Station Theory - The Guardian . "There is a theory about art, which can be applied (I think) to start-ups and many other things. The theory says: if you want to be fulfilled in your creative endeavors, you should stay on the bus. Specifically, a bus running from Helsinki's main bus depot. I think this is good advice." (Hugh for Mitch).

Google's X factor: "Captain of Moonshots" describes secret lab - Gigaom . "I'm spoiled rotten. Every year I get to attend events like TED and Google Zeitgeist , where I see some of the most fascinating people taking on initiatives to either change our world or better our humanity. Beyond it being a very humbling experience, after a few years, you start to realize that Google is so much more than business and a brand. It used to be that Presidents of nations would take to the podium and announce to the world our advancements and innovations. Now, with a warchest of money to tinker with, companies like Google are tackling some of the most interesting challenges in society... privately... without R&D money from the government." (Mitch for Alistair).

Imagine a Digital Library in Every Bus or Train - The Atlantic . "There are so many ways to inject more culture into our society. I read this article, smiled and thought to myself, 'why doesn't this become a reality?' We're struggling to figure out what the value of a library is or how book stores are going to stay in operation, and then something like this happens. There are enough books in public domain to make a project like this a reality without needing the whole e-commerce component. As an avid reader, I'm not sure why so many people don't make more time to read. With this initiative, we may have just helped those people solve the problem by bringing books to them, when we know that not much else is going on." (Mitch for Hugh).

Now it's your turn: in the comment section below pick one thing that you saw this week that inspired you and share it.

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Ads Worth Spreading 2013

It is one of my favorite initiatives.

TED has been working hard to acknowledge TV ads that are "ideas worth spreading." When I hear people say that they hate advertising, I don't believe them. People hate BAD advertising and, unfortunately, a good bulk of the work that comes out of the advertising industry is mediocre at best, and bad a lot more often than it should be. People love ads that tell a story. People love ads that make them laugh, think, cry, grow and more. Volumes have been written about what it takes to produce a great spot. Volumes have also been written about the abysmal failure and poor reception that TV ads get. Still, when it works... it just works. At this past year's TED conference, ten choice spots were chosen. They are worthy of your time and attention. And, if they do the job they are supposed to do, who knows you may just become a customer... a loyal one.

TED 2013's Ads Worth Spreading:

The unifying theme:

In a word: courage. It takes courage to makes TV ads like this. It's not just the agency and their creative team, either. It's the brand, the media company and everyone else. It takes courage to do what other don't expect. It takes courage to create something that may feel vague or uncertain in the experience brief. Yes, it takes great creative to execute these ideas, but before the execution of an ad, comes the courage to do something remarkable.

What ads have inspired you in the past little while?

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The Marketing Agency Of The Future

Is there a future for the advertising agency as we have known it to date?

In recent months, there has been a slew of articles about advertising agencies and their future/fate in a world that is so dramatically changing when it comes to the marketing of brands. Without question, brands have been amping up their internal resources and bringing many of the resources that have typically fallen within the domain of the agency back inside the organization. It is not uncommon for internal marketing teams to have senior chops in the areas of creative development and analytics down to community management, loyalty program management and even the day-to-day handling of certain media activities (like search engine marketing, affiliate marketing and more).

What's an agency to do?

It's a murky, unclear future for the marketing agency, but one thing is for certain: things are changing at an exponential pace. An agency used to act as the executional arm of the marketing department. An outsourced idea and creative team that could get the production done at a cost that was less than what it would cost the brand to have a permanent staff in place. Over time, this role has changed. The digital channels have definitely amplified the need for agencies to evolve and adapt. How people connect to traditional channels like TV, print, radio and out-of-home has changed from their intended purpose of interrupting consumers with a message during content consumption. Social media pushed this even further by forcing brands to engage with consumers - one-on-one - for the public to see, in a very human voice. Mobile continues to offer many ways to connect with consumers who now wield tremendous power in the palm of their hands. With that everyone is curious about how big data is going to play out, what's in store for wearable technology and just what, exactly, the screen of the future will look like and how consumers will interact with it? Still, the role of the agency is fairly simplistic (in philosophical terms): help a brand increase their sales and loyalty. Noting more. Nothing less. And that value-add has not changed since agencies were first invented. So, now what? How do agencies ensure their future by being able to help brands sell more and build stronger loyalty in such a disrupted and disintermediated world where every individual is consuming so much media in so many different channels and, in the same breath, are their own media channels (look no further than Facebook, YouTube, tumblr, Twitter and more)? How does an agency stay ahead of the curve?

Here are five new attributes for marketing agencies to develop:

Models of leanness. Eric Ries brought the concept of the Lean Startup into our zeitgeist. Marketing agencies of the future will need to focus on many of the strategies that the lean movement engenders. From how we initiate a project by establishing metrics and outcomes from the beginning, to being more agile in building programs that can bend, move and iterate as we learn from what the market is telling us (marketing optimization anyone?). Most marketing is still driven by quarterly planning or seasonal initiatives (aka marketers know best). While it may be hard to transition to a truly real-time way of operating (aka consumers know best), starting with models of leanness will force agencies to be more nimble, more sensitive to how the brand's budget is allocated and force a spirit of partnership with the brands they represent. That partnership was somewhat lost in the past and agencies became more like vendors than trusted advisors. Models of leanness will bring partnership back to the table.

Utility over content. If the past ten years were about developing content in the social channels (in order to provide value, humanize the brand, be present in search engines and more), the next five years will be about the brands that can actually create a level of utility for the consumer (more on that here: Great Marketing Is Utilitarian). Too many brands are confusing a utility with more robust marketing messaging. The two are not the same. Utility is something that consumers would use on their own accord because it adds value to their daily lives (something they might even pay for). Regardless of attribution to a brand. The bonus (and benefit) comes to the brand by creating something that consumers can't live without and the appreciation and attachment that comes from it.

Content as media. Content was used as chum for brands. Brands blog, podcast, tweet, post and more in hopes of drawing consumers over to their home base (which was - and still is - littered with marketing calls to action). As native advertising models continue to be introduced (more on that here: We Need a Better Definition of "Native Advertising") and the ability for brands to do something that will resonate with consumers gets more difficult due to the crowded social platforms, content becomes another form of media. Some agencies are helping brands to create their own, authentic newsrooms within an organization while other agencies are building their own newsrooms to help brands create more relevant and original pieces of content that don't look, smell or act like a press release or advertorial. Content as media become a natural extension of an agencies' ability to help tell a better and more connected brand narrative.

R&D. Marketing agencies sell professional services. Not products. In the past, many marketing agencies have done their best to create, market and sell an actual product (be it digital or physical). Most have had limited success. Service-based companies selling products has not been a wildly successful endeavor for the majority of marketing agencies. Going forward, this will have to change. The ability for a marketing agency to provide a higher level of research and development in terms of product development and technological implementation will be core to success. Agencies must get much better at providing a deeper context of opportunity for brands to explore. While everyone is excited about the potential of "big data," the idea of agencies bringing more R&D to brands could best be defined as "big research." Pushing beyond the research, analytics and insights to deliver solutions that can't just be relegated to a purchased media space. Helping brands create what they're going to be selling next.

Many big ideas. When people think of marketing agencies and the advertising output, they generally think about the big idea... and how it plays out across media. As we move towards the era of personalization, agencies must become the purveyors of personalization. This does not mean the death of the big idea, but rather a new dawn when agencies are brining brands many big ideas that are either directly or loosely connected in a way that enables them to connect the brand through channels that transcend advertising (think content, wearable technology, screens that allow consumers to skip traditional messaging and more). Pushing that further, consumers are not the same when they're watching television as they are when they're on a smartphone. They're not the same consumers when they're reading consumer reviews as they are when they are in a physical retail location. Each scenario, each consumer, each moment of engagement continues to look very different than the output of marketing messages that agencies have been responsible for to date. The brands that can create these many big ideas and be accountable for these many new forms of creative are destined for success.

Is the agency of the future just a back to the future moment?

Sadly, most people think of "advertising" when they think of "marketing." Marketing - as traditionally defined - is about the Four Ps (Product, Price, Place and Promotion). Marketing agencies have spent the bulk of their time focused on just the promotion part of those Four Ps. The world - because of technology and connectedness - is forcing marketing agencies back to the entire sphere that encompasses marketing. Now, more than ever, marketing agencies will be challenged to prove their results and mettle. It's going to be interesting to see which agencies can transcend and thrive in these times.

What do you think are some of the attributes marketing agencies need to remain valuable to brands?

The above posting is my twice-monthly column for the Harvard Business Review . I cross-post it here with all the links and tags for your reading pleasure, but you can check out the original version online here:

Harvard Business Review - What the Marketing Agency of the Future Will Do Differently .

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