3 questions to adapt marketing to the new economy

There are four kinds of advertising agencies (I use the word advertising because it is the best short-hand expression of what clients need and want today, which is everything from strategy to connections planning, from advertising to digital, to mobility to social media).

The first kind of agency is the legacy agency. The huge holding company that has been around for decades and has honed a very established model for the distribution of huge campaigns for massive budgets.

The second kind of agency are the more innovative medium-size shops like Crispin Porter + Bogusky or BBH or Goodby, which are owned outright or significantly by holding companies.

The third kind of agency are the independent medium size agencies that are owned by the employees that have been around for 10 years or more, do not report to a distant holding company, but have an established process and client base such as Tugboat in Tokyo, Forsman Bodenfors and Perfect Fools in Sweden, Modernista in Boston, Venebles Bell in SF, David and Goliath in LA, and Taxi in Canada.

And the fourth kind of agency are the ones which are just starting out. New kinds of shops that are digging in as the world is digging out such as Stick and Move, Persuasion Arts and Sciences, and others.

An exception to this is of course Widen and Kennedy which has been around for over 25 years and is fiercely independent.

Today it's all about having scintillating strategy and paradigm shifting creative, but more being an agency that's agile as hell.

Why? Because the world has totally and absolutely changed. So too have the needs of advertisers. I was in Italy earlier this month at a conference that asked the philosophical question: "Everything has changed, shall we change everything?" And then later in Dubai the same issues were addressed. They are the topics of conferences here in the US, Canada, Brasil, India and everywhere.

Change is true to marketing and it's true to business as a whole. But perhaps truer to the advertising business because the media revolution underway is undoing all the IKEA furniture and redoing it in totally new forms. And added to this is the economic cold shower that is hosing it all down the drain - both of which are turning what we used to know upside down. New global brands are breaking through in new ways.

Read Peter Bregman's recent post on the Harvard site. He explains it better than me:

Here's what surprised me though: once I changed my driving to match the conditions, I actually enjoyed it. The silence was relaxing and the snow was stunningly beautiful.

Driving safely through a storm requires that you change how you drive; you have to stay alert and adapt to the shifting conditions.

Welcome to the new economy. The conditions have shifted, and if you're doing the same things you did when it was nice and sunny, you'll crash. You need to change your approach.

Change doesn't mean doing more of the same: selling harder, working longer hours, being more aggressive. That won't help. If you're playing basketball and suddenly you find yourself on a football field, don't use more force to bounce the basketball on the grass. Drop the basketball, pick up a football, and run with it.

So often we hear the importance of being consistent. Let that go. Try to be inconsistent. Modify your action to match the changing terrain. It's always changing. So there's no simple formula that will get you through every situation you encounter.

Well, maybe there's one.

Before you do or say anything, ask yourself three questions:

1. What's the situation? (The outcome you want to achieve? The risks? The time pressures? The needs?)
2. Who else is involved? (What are their strengths? Weaknesses? Values? Vulnerabilities? Needs?)
3. How can I help? (What are your strengths? Weaknesses? Values? Vulnerabilities?)

Comments

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