Mitch Joel's Blog: Six Pixels of Separation, page 311

Another Kind Of Advertising Agency

Why is it that so many advertising professionals eventually retire and become consumer advocates?

Are they atoning for their sins? This is the commonly held perception. I didn't get into the marketing industry to make consumers feel "less than" unless they bought the products or services that I was representing. I got involved in marketing, because I enjoy the practice of better understanding human nature, why we buy and how can we better inform people to make decisions that are more aligned with their goals and values. It's not always easy. For a long while, I have been a fan of the philosopher and writer, Alain de Botton (you can read more here: Job Snobbery). In a The Huffington Post piece titled, An Ethical Advertising Agency, de Botton wonders why there isn't a different kind advertising agency. One that doesn't try to sell us things that we don't need, but rather, "one that would use the aesthetic talents of advertising but direct these to a really grand and noble project: that of nudging us to be the best of ourselves. Imagine an ethical advertising campaign that wanted to promote virtues of character applicable and relevant to our own lives, virtues like kindness, patience, humility, generosity, courage and humour." 

It's an important read. Click on his article above and read the whole thing.

Once you're done reading his column, please watch this...

Now, it's your turn... is this a dream or is this something that might actually work?

Tags:

ad agency

advertising

advertising agency

advertising professional

alain de botton

big think

buying habits

consumer advocate

human nature

marketing industry

the huffington post

Loyalty Is Not Just About The Data

Are the right people in the room when you talk about building loyalty?

After speaking at the 2012 Colloquy Loyalty Summit in Rancho Palos Verdes, California yesterday (the Terranea Resort is one of the beautiful places I have ever spoken), I found myself wondering if brands aren't shortchanging themselves on their loyalty programs, and where they reside within the organization? The majority of the attendees have titles that are slanted towards the CRM (Customer Relationship Management), data and analytics divisions of a company.

Loyalty is not just about the data that one collects.

In fact, I would argue that loyalty isn't even about the relevant programs that a brand puts out based on the data that they have collected. Why is loyalty so closely linked to data and, in many instances, so distanced from the greater marketing good? Rewards and redemption aren't the be all and end all of loyalty anymore. Bryan Pearson is President and CEO of Loyalty One (the company that owns Colloquy) and the author of the bestselling business book, The Loyalty Leap (more on that here: Building Loyalty Beyond Reason). The subtitle of his book hints at the new world of loyalty and how mal-aligned it is in most of the larger organizations. "Turning customer information into customer intimacy," is not just a compelling subtitle for The Loyalty Leap, it speaks to the deep chasm that exists between our current definition of "loyalty" when it comes to brands today and the promise of what it can mean.

I am not a number. I am a human being.

Loyalty, in this day and age, is about a number. Brands collect your purchase information, turn you into a zero and one and spit out offers based on technical algorithms. Sexy, I know. Does that feel like loyalty? Does that feel like a real interaction between real human beings. Whether or not you're experiencing fatigue on the terms "social media" and "social business" is irrelevant, the fact remains that it's going to be increasingly more difficult for brands to build true loyalty if they're not looking at all of this fascinating information that we, the customers, are posting in the social channel. No, we don't wants brands to creep on us and farm this data to hit us up with more inane offers, we're talking about a new dawn in loyalty where we push beyond personalized offers into a place where context truly becomes king and queen.

What loyalty can mean.

We want to treat our best customers better. We want to treat other customers in a way that will make them better customers. We want those who are only considering our brand - or trying us out for the first time - to keep on coming back. Is loyalty only about signing customers up to a program? Turning customers into a number? Getting customers to gamify their shopping experience? The answers aren't as clear as they once were, so I left the 2012 Colloguy Loyalty Summit wondering if we need to turn these loyalty professionals from customer relationship management and data jockeys into the very heart and soul of what the brand can (and should) be? We need to get better at building loyalty. True loyalty. Not data pukes and customer segmentation Excel files, but the kind of stuff that moves us from selling more to being more valuable and appreciated in the consumer's life.

Laugh all you want, I'm being dead serious. 

Tags:

2012 colloquy loyalty summit

analytics

brand

bryan pearson

business book

colloguy

contextual marketing

crm

customer centric

customer information

customer intimacy

customer relationship management

data

data jockey

loyalty

loyalty one

loyalty program

marketing

shopping experience

social business

social channels

social media

terranea

the loyalty leap

web analytics

Kickstart Your Marketing And Leadership Skills... Now

Where do you go to learn, grow and think differently about marketing and leadership?

I've been fortunate enough to not only speak, but attend events like The Art of Marketing for many years. They have a slew of upcoming events, and I have an offer for everyone in the Six Pixels of Separation community to take part in. While the events are taking place in Canada, it's just a short hop across the U.S. border, and these are events that you do not want to miss.

Here's the current rundown...

The Art of Leadership in Ottawa on September 18th, 2012 . This full-day event happening at the Ottawa Convention Center will feature Patrick Lencioni, Vijay Govindarajan, Susan Cain, Stephen Shapiro and yours truly.

The Art of Leadership in Calgary on September September 27th, 2012 . This full-day event happening at the Epcor Center for the Performing Arts will feature Marcus Buckingham, Vijay Govindarajan, Jim Kouzes, Susan Cain and me.

The Art of Management in Toronto on November 20th, 2012 . This full-day event happening at the Metro Convention Center will feature, Simon Sinek, Charles Duhigg, Sir Ken Robinson, Cynthia Montgomery and Jack Welch (please note: I will not be speaking at this event).

The Art of Marketing in Vancouver on November 27th, 2012 . This full-day event happening at the Vancouver Convention Center will feature, Eric Ryan, Randi Zuckerberg, Biz Stone, Scott Stratten and me.

Want cheap tickets?

If you're interested in attending any of these events, the kind people at The Art of Productions are offering a discount to all of you. The regular rate to attend is $399 per person, however you and your guests can register at a rate of $349 per person (or $299 per person when registering 3 or more people at the same time). Just make sure to use promo code: TWIST.

Want to go for free?

Even cooler, I have two pairs of VIP tickets to giveaway for each of these events (except for Calgary - the tickets will be good for general admission, as the VIP section is already sold out). On top of that, every winner will also get one book bundle per city (this includes one book from each of the speakers at the event, so it's a pretty nice score). How do you win? Just let me know in the comment section below what you do to grow, learn and think differently about your marketing and leadership skills. Also, please let me know which city you would like to attend.

A few things to know... 

The only thing you will win are the tickets. You have to cover travel, accommodations, etc... Because the Ottawa event is happening next week, if you're interested in winning tickets to that one, please ensure that you have left a comment by Friday, September 14th at 5:00 pm (eastern time). Every other city has until Friday, September 21st at 5:00 pm (eastern time). These events are pretty awesome and they're usually packed. I hope you will take the opportunity to attend whether you have already bought tickets on your own or if you win them here. I will also be hanging out at these events, so make sure to come over and say "hi!" - it's my favorite part.

Good luck and I hope to see you there!

For more information on the events (including purchasing tickets, agendas and full bios on the speakers), please go here: The Art of Productions.

Tags:

biz stone

business book

charles duhigg

cynthia montgomery

eric ryan

jack welch

jim kouzes

leadership

leadership event

leadership skills

management skills

marcus buckingham

marketing

marketing event

marketing skills

patrick lencioni

randi zuckerberg

scott stratten

simon sinek

sir ken robinson

stephen shapiro

susan cain

the art of leadership

the art of management

the art of marketing

the art of productions

vijay govindarajan

Lessons In New Business Require A Foundation

What is new business? What is the future of business?

It's a cliché to say that there is no such thing as "business as usual." It's true (things always change) and it's not true (business is still about creating a market and capitalizing on it). I've fallen madly and deeply in love in with Kevin Rose's video podcast, Foundation. Every month (or so) he sits down with a Silicon Valley type to better understand what makes them tick. I've chosen a few of my favorite episodes below and put them in a specific order for you to watch, in the hopes that it will get you to think differently about what business is... and what it can be.

Grab your notebook and set aside some serious time. Here we go...

#1 - Chris Sacca - founder of Lowercase Capital talks about how businesses get funded in the new economy:

#2 - Jack Dorsey from Twitter and Square talks about the truth behind entrepreneurship:

#3 - Jason Goldberg from Fab talks about knowing when things aren't working and how to turn them around:

#4 - Kevin Systrom is the founder of Instagram and he follows on the themes of Jason Goldberg, but digs deeper in the area of finding your focus:

#5 - Elon Musk is the founder of PayPal, SpaceX and Tesla Motors and talks about dreaming big... and thinking bigger:

Lots of powerful lessons. What were your takeaways?

Tags:

chris sacca

elon musk

entrepreneur

entrepreneurship

fab

foundation

instagram

jack dorsey

jason goldberg

kevin rose

kevin systrom

lowercase capital

new business

new economy

paypal

silicon valley

spacex

square

tesla motors

the future of business

twitter

Quirky Turns Us All Into Sharks And Dragons

Have you ever seen the TV show Shark Tank or Dragon's Den?

Being an entrepreneur is hotter than ever. Individuals are starting to realize that global economic forces are abound, and that the sanctity of a traditional office job with a pension may be a relic of the past. TV shows like Shark Tank and Dragon's Den only fire up people's desire to take the crazy ideas that they're conjuring up in the shower, or while daydreaming at their desk, and turn them into a viable business. Unless you're Kevin O'Leary (one of the judges on both Shark Tank and Dragon's Den), it's hard to find the money, resources and skills to take an idea and bring it to fruition. Even if you have thought about posting an idea on crowdfunding platform like Kickstarter, there is a massive challenge in fulfilling on the promise if your project actually gets funded. People who have great ideas tend to not have all of the necessary skills to bring that idea to market... until now.

Enter Quirky. 

Unlike Kickstarter - where individuals post their business ideas and offer the opportunity for people to back the project - Quirky takes innovation and collaboration to a whole new level. Launched in 2009, Quirky is an industrial design company located in New York that launches two new consumer products each and every week. Individuals pay ten dollars to submit their idea to Quirky and the community (that's you and I) choose which are best via their online channel. But, it doesn't end there. The community is responsible for truly collaborating and innovating on the products as well. With over 260,000 community members, everything from color schemes and nomenclature to enhancements are all active components of being a good community citizen. What do great citizens get in return? Money? Royalties? Fame? Yes... all of the above. Quirky commits to producing the product and ensuring that it's ready for prime time. To date, they have launched close to 230 products with close to 190 retail partners (including Target, Staples, Amazon, Bed Bath & Beyond and more). They have paid out over two million dollars in royalties to inventors and collaborators, and even had time to produce a hit reality television show about their business called, Quirky, on the Sundance Channel.

It gets better... and bigger.

This past week, Quirky got even more attention when it raised another $68 million in funding that was led by two of Silicon Valley's most recognized venture capital firms: Andreessen Horowitz and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. In total, Quirky has raised close to $92 million in financing. If that's not impressive for a company that has been in business for a little over three years, try this one on for size: The founder is Ben Kaufman and he is 24-years old. Are you starting to feel old and dated?

A new dawn in product development and innovation.

When product development meets social media, interesting businesses like Quirky flourish. Products like Pivot Power (a flexible power strip that allows you to plug in multiple consumer electronic products) or UnHampered (a foldable laundry basket) can be developed, launched and in-market in short order. More impressively, Quirky shares all of the data and results in near-real time on their website for the world to see. Pivot Power took about one month to develop, has been in stores for 486 days, has sold 336,077 units paying out $376,261.93 in royalties.

Now, you don't even need to have the big idea.

Quirky is a new and fascinating business model. The inventors are a new and fascinating crew. What makes this platform most interesting is the community. According to The New York Times' Dealbook blog post, Quirky Gets Backing From Andreessen Horowitz and Kleiner Perkins, the individual that came up with the Pivot Power's tagline ("Flex Your Power") is bound to earn more than $50,000 this year for that one part alone (and yes, royalties are paid in perpetuity). How much influence individuals have in the product's development earns them much more than bragging rights. These individuals (who help make the product better through their online comments and recommendations) are paid a percentage of sales based on their level of influence. So, yes, you can now head over to Quirky and act like the Sharks or Dragons that you see on TV, but you don't have to open up your cheque book to be a part of the magic. You can simply commit your time, energy and creativity and be paid for it... should the community agree on the value that you bring to the project.

It turns out that your idea and a quarter can get you a whole lot more than a cup of coffee these days.

Quirky Manifesto from Quirky on Vimeo.

The above post is my twice-monthly column for the Montreal Gazette and Vancouver Sun newspapers called, New Business - Six Pixels of Separation. I cross-post it here with all the links and tags for your reading pleasure.

Tags:

amazon

andreessen horowitz

bed bath and beyond

ben kaufman

business model

collaboration

consumer electronics

consumer products

crowdfunding

dealbook blog

dragons den

entrepreneur

global economics

ideation

industrial design

innovation

inventor

kevin oleary

kickstarter

kleiner perkins caufield byers

montreal gazette

new business

pivot power

product development

quirky

reality television

retail

shark tank

silicon valley

social media

staples

sundance channel

target

the new york times

traditional work

unhampered

vancouver sun

venture capital

web analytics

Does A Personal Brand Scale?

Episode #322 of Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to.

After spending a few days at Content Marketing World, this past week, my head is still spinning over the myriad of opportunities that brands have when it comes to creating better relationships with customers. Another speaker at the event was Paul Roetzer of PR 20/20 (Paul has been on the podcast before: SPOS #294 - The Marketing Agency Blueprint With Paul Roetzer). He is also the author of The Marketing Agency Blueprint - The handbook for building hybrid, PR, SEO, Content, Advertising, and Web firms. We wound up having a fascinating conversation about how to grow a digital marketing business while making a personal brand scalable. We both questioned whether or not this was even possible. Beyond that, he was kind enough to introduce me to his latest project, Net Marketing Score - an online tool to help marketing agencies better qualify potential clients. It's one of the coolest things I have seen in the past while. 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 #322.

Tags:

advertising podcast

blog

blogging

brand

business book

content marketing world

david usher

digital marketing

facebook

itunes

marketing

marketing blogger

marketing podcast

net marketing score

online social network

paul roetzer

podcast

podcasting

pr 2020

social media

the marketing agency blueprint

Let's Not Mess Up The Internet

Do you love Seth Godin ?

I first met Godin at an Internet event in New York City just prior to the launch of his book, Permission Marketing. This was the early days of the Internet. After reading Permission Marketing, I remember putting the book down and writing down one note: "I hope we don't screw up the Internet." The proverbial "we" is you and I - the professional marketing community. Someone (in this case, Godin), had to write a business book to remind us all that we have to be vigilant with this new media channel. That we shouldn't pollute it and blow it like we had done in the past with other marketing channels. That asking people's permission to communicate with them was the right thing to do (no kidding). That the more permission we were allotted, the better our relationships could be.

Well, we messed it up.

Why do you think there are so many rules and regulations when it comes to email marketing and the problem of spam? There's a reason the government is involved. Why is is that each and every time something new comes along, with it comes the derelicts and scumbags who will undermine it to make a buck and - in the process - ruin such an amazing gift. My good friend, Avinash Kaushik (author of Web Analytics - An Hour A Day and Web Analytics 2.0) is known to say that the Internet is God's gift to humanity. That line always makes me smile and laugh. He's right. It's this massive gift. But, time and again, we blow it.

Let's try to stop blowing it.

I'm in love with Kickstarter (more on that here: The Most Exciting Thing Happening In Digital Right Now). While the crowdfunding platform continues to grow and produce new and fascinating businesses in the creative space, I'm starting to see the early warning signals that the well is about to become polluted. This past week, NPR's All Tech Considered ran a news item titled, When A Kickstarter Campaign Fails, Does Anyone Get The Money Back?, that looked at projects that were funded, but have yet to deliver the goods promised to their backers (or customers). From the article: "That's the conflict at the heart of Kickstarter: While the company's policy says creators have to give refunds on failed projects, the website doesn't have a mechanism to do it... As entrepreneurs come online, Kickstarter and hundreds of similar platforms will have to sort out if each transaction is a donation or a purchase." In short, should Kickstarter be responsible if a successfully backed project struggles in the production phase and is unable to deliver the goods as promised? Just a day later, Kickstarter addressed these issues in a blog post titled, Accountability on Kickstarter. They said: "We started Kickstarter as a new way for creators and audiences to work together to make things. The traditional funding systems are risk-averse and profit-focused, and tons of great ideas never get a chance as a result. We thought Kickstarter could open the door to a much wider variety of ideas and allow everyone to decide what they wanted to see exist in the world. Kickstarter is full of ambitious, innovative, and imaginative ideas that aren't possible anywhere else. The pursuit of these projects with a guarantee doesn't work. A Kickstarter where every project is guaranteed would be the same safe bets and retreads we see everywhere else. The fact that Kickstarter allows creators to take risks and attempt to create something ambitious is a feature, not a bug."

New questions and new ethics for a new world.

It's going to be interesting to see how this unfolds and the challenges that creators are facing is nothing new. Kickstarter encourages these creators to be up-front and frank with their backers, through sharing the creative process via updates. All of these growing pains and production issues are not the things that worry me. It's what comes next. As Kickstarter continues to grows, they must be vigilant with their screening process. It's not a far step from having creators unable to fulfill on their promise to suddenly being in a position where individuals are creating initiatives with the sole purpose of extracting money from people without ever having any intention of delivering on the goods as promised.

It's not just Kickstarter.

Kickstarter already has a lot of competition and - with each and every passing day - newer platforms are coming online. Greed does sad things to people. I'm sitting here, on a Saturday night enthralled by so many interesting Kickstarter projects. I want to fund them all. I want to continue to be a direct patron of the arts. With that, I can see how much Kickstarter has changed already and I'm hopeful that the evil-doers will not edge their way in and ruin what is a very good thing.

I'm hopeful that they won't, but I'm not all that confident. Are you? 

Tags:

all tech considered

avinash kaushik

business book

creative

creative process

crowdfunding

digital ethics

email marketing

entrepreneur

funding system

innovation

internet

internet culture

kickstarter

marketing channel

new media

npr

patron of the arts

permission marketing

professional marketing

seth godin

spam

web analytics 20

web analytics an hour a day

Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #116

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 and Managing Bandwidth: Deploying QOS in Enterprise Networks), Hugh McGuire (The Book Oven, LibriVox, iambik, PressBooks, Media Hacks) 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:

Scientific Communication As Sequential Art - Worry Dream . "Can we make things easier to understand by moving beyond the constraints of text? All this talk about digital publishing misses much of the point: that interactive interfaces let us re-imagine information. Here's how Bret Victor would structure a paper on network theory, making it something the reader can explore." (Alistair for Hugh).

The Dude (Director's Cut) - Vimeo . "Turns out The Big Lebowski is a documentary. Well, maybe not -- but it's inspired by a guy named Jeff Dowd. Here's a film by Jeff Feuerzig that shows you how he abides." (Alistair for Mitch).

Obama spending binge never happened - The Wall Street Journal . "So you know how Obama has been spending money like crazy, cranking up the US deficit like no other President? Well, it turns out he isn't. In fact, he's the most miserly President since Eisenhower. In Reagan's first term, US government spending increased by 8.7%; Bush I increased spending by 5.4%, Clinton by 3.9%, and Bush II by 8.3%. Obama the spendthrift has increased spending by... 1.4%." (Hugh for Alistair).

DNC Recap: Bill Clinton's Night - The Atlantic . "It's US election time, which means round-the-clock coverage. You can't avoid the constant onslaught, and almost all of it looks and sounds like the same stuff you've heard and seen a billion times. So, it was a nice surprise to land on this Atlantic piece that presented an event (Bill Clinton at the Demoractic National Convention) in a fresh and interesting way: using a clever mix of animated gifs, quotes and commentary. It's a sort of hybrid between video and text that really jumped off my iPhone screen in a way no other article I've ever read has done." (Hugh for Mitch).

Foundation - Episode #19 - Om Malik . "I couldn't be more in love with this podcast. Kevin Rose ( Digg , etc...) does this video interview podcast called, Foundation , where he holds a fascinating conversation with people in Silicon Valley. This episode, with Om Malik ( GigaOM ), is a gem for anyone interested in technology, writing and how to get a message heard above the noise. It's clear that Malik holds a deep passion for the work he does. It's inspiring. Trust me... watch this." (Mitch for Alistair).

Don't Get Fooled By The Fakes Of Publishing - Netminds . " Tim Sanders writes about something we all know about in the publishing industry: many authors buy their way on to the bestsellers list. There are people who are paid to make it look legitimate, and then there are the authors who simply buy a whole bunch of books to make their scenario look better than it is. Is it worth it? The cool part about this piece is that it's not just a rant about what's wrong with gaming the situation. Sanders provides some solid solutions for readers, so that they can figure out which books are truly great when compared to the books that have gamed the system." (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.

THE DUDE (Director's Cut) from Jeff Feuerzeig on Vimeo.

Tags:

alistair croll

bill clinton

bitcurrent

bret victor

complete web monitoring

democratic national convention

digg

foundation

gigaom

hugh mcguire

human 20

iambik

iphone

jeff dowd

jeff feuerzig

kevin rose

librivox

link exchange

linkbait

managing bandwidth

media hacks

newminds

om malik

pressbooks

story

the atlantic

the big lebowski

the book oven

the dude

the wall street journal

tim sanders

vimeo

worry dream

year one labs

Before You Hire A Digital Marketing Agency

"What can you do for me?"

Without a question, this is the number one question I get asked when potential clients call us at Twist Image. On the frontlines of our business development, through speaking at close to seventy events every year, all over the world for the past seven years, and in candid conversations with my peers at other digital marketing agencies, it is clear to me that few brands (small, medium and/or large) have a firm grasp on what it means to engage with a digital marketing agency.

Here are six things to think about before hiring a digital marketing agency:

DNA. Is digital in your blood. You don't have to be a digital native, but you do have to have a keen grasp of the new consumer and how connected they are. A brand must look at their DNA and ask themselves if they are truly prepared to commit to a digital marketing strategy. If you're looking to test the waters with a project or two, it is more than likely that it will fail. The strength of digital marketing comes from shifting your DNA away from a campaign advertising mindset to a commitment.

Plan. Take the time to create your own plan or vision of what outcomes you would like and anticipate prior to calling any digital marketing agency. A plan - whether it's naive or professional - will give the digital marketing agency some idea as to the level of sophistication that you have (or that you are lacking). This is the one that most brands don't want to hear. They're worried that they're going to look stupid or that an agency will take advantage of them because they're not sophisticated. Not true. Planning also includes doing your homework to ensure that you're meeting with an agency that could be the right fit. Take the time to ask around, check references and do a lot of online research. From there, create a shortlist of potential partners. Practice doesn't make perfect. Planning and practice makes perfect.

Budget. "How much will this cost? We're looking for a quote. We don't know what our budget is." These are three easy ways to ensure that you're not going to get the best result. If you don't have a marketing budget, it is best for you make one prior to calling any agency partner. Figure out what percentage of that overall budget you would like to dedicate to digital. Commit to it. From there dig a little deeper. What are you looking to do with this budget (this should be a part of the plan from #2 above)? What are you willing to pay for a new customer (this is also known as your cost per acquisition)? Yes, a smart digital marketing agency will help you figure this stuff out, but you need to do your own homework first. Budgets do not have to be fixed in stone. Think about it more like giving the agency some rails... a strong range to work with.

People. Jim Collins talks about getting the right people in the right seat on the bus as a euphemism for having smart people doing what they do best. There is no doubt that leaning on a digital marketing agency makes sense in this day and age. Brands cannot commit that type of time and resource to doing all of this on their own (and the ones that can, are very fortunate). That being said, the brand must still have the right (re: smart, professional and experienced) leadership to know what they're buying and be able to lead them. The best brand/agency relationships are always the ones where both parties are working together - side by side - to create something remarkable. Unfortunately, brands are not stepping up and putting the right people in place to enable their agency partner to be successful. This is not a slight against brands, but digital marketing is not something that can be planned per quarter and then looked at weekly on a status call. This is a 24/7 real-time environment. It takes effort and dedication to get this right and that all flows from an iterative, organic and live engagement. The Web is happening now.

Knowledge. This is all new (still). Twenty years seems like a long time to be in this game (for people like me), but it's still very new for the majority of marketing professionals. A great agency partner is not one with knowledge. A great agency partner is one who shares knowledge. In short, we're all still learning and evolving with the times. Just as we start to think that Facebook is everything, smartphones and iPads come along, and it forced us to take a step back and wonder what our marketing will look like over the next few years. It's normal and it's scary. We all have to get more knowledgeable and share that knowledge between us. If your brand is not willing to be a part of that learning experience, it's going to be increasingly hard for you to get great service out of a digital marketing agency for one, simple reason: you won't really understand what, exactly, you are buying.

Partners. Do not take on a digital marketing agency as a vendor. Take them on as a strategic partner. This will help your brand make digital a part of your DNA, it will keep everyone in the loop on how the strategic plan evolves, and it will make it easier to understand budgets and goals. Beyond that, everyone will get smarter - together. I believe that the number one reason our industry has so much dramatic turnover when it comes to senior marketing professionals on the brand side and the amount of times an agency is swapped in and out is directly related to the fact that so few brands and agencies are true partners.

What's missing? What else is critical for a brand to know before hiring a digital marketing agency?

Tags:

advertising

brand

business development

customer acquisition

digital marketing

digital marketing agency

digital marketing strategy

digital native

facebook

ipad

jim collins

marketing budget

marketing professional

new consumer

online research

senior marketing professional

smartphone

Everything Digital

Why isn't everything digital?

When I think like this, I'm quite certain it freaks the mass majority out. But, here's the thing...

Every time I handle cash (coins or paper).

Every time I take out a credit card.

Every time an airline won't let me check-in online.

Every time I see a doctor and they write something down in a file.

Every time I fill out a form.

Every time I vote.

Every time I have to put money into a parking meter.

Every time I have to run back downstairs to shut some lights.

Every time I pick up a newspaper.

Every time I have to order food by telephone.

Every time I have to call a customer service line.

Every time I have to wait in line for something.

Every time I have to call down to the hotel lobby.

Every time I see someone buying a big book.

I ask myself, "why isn't everything digital?"

Some of it is. When the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson came out, I had pre-ordered it from Amazon via Kindle. It was delivered at midnight and I dove right it, by starting to read it on my iPhone with the Kindle app. I thought I would eventually use my Kindle device or the app on the iPad, but I was so enthralled with the writing, that the iPhone version best suited my need to grab a paragraph or two at any open opportunity throughout my day. Within a week, I had finished it. A few days after completing the book, I found myself in an airport book store with an individual who was buying the Steve Jobs book in hardcover. It stopped me dead in my tracks. I had no idea how many pages the book was and I had no idea how big it was. I could hardly believe that I had read all of that text on my iPhone (that's some serious thumb swiping). At the same time, I realized that had I seen the book and bought it, it would still be sitting on my bookshelf. I would need to carve out the time to pick up that book and there is no way I would travel with any book that had that kind of mass to it.

What once filled my study walls now lies in the palm of my hand.

I love books. I love reading. Probably more than most people. I love paper. I love book stores. I love magazines. I love magazine stores, but I can't imagine ever buying any of that content any other way but digital. That sense of being spoiled by technology now leaks into everything I encounter. Call me lazy, but having this glimpse into a digital world has made me thirsty for more. Much more. I walk through my typical airport and hotel experience thinking that the majority of things that slow us down could be handled so much better with more digital and more technology.

I worry about being hacked. 

If we can't get the security right, this is all for nothing. If we can get to the point where the security is tight enough to make everything stable, it's going to be an incredible time. Right now, this all still early days. So, while we still marvel each and every time we pick up our iPhones and Android devices, I simply can't wait until everything is there at my beck and call. Yes, medical records, access to information, the ability to make the simpler tasks even simpler, and the ability to make the more complex things that much more tolerable.

I say this: digital... bring it on. Make everything digital.

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