Comments on: Can Agencies Evolve into Social?

By: Does Your Social Media Portfolio Include a 401k? « The Engaged Consumer

Does Your Social Media Portfolio Include a 401k? « The Engaged Consumer — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 18:24:53 +0000

[...] with those brands’ marketing agencies. In an earlier post, I broke down the question of whether or not agencies can evolve into social. In that post I mentioned a lot of ways that agencies will choose to drive that evolution – [...]

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By: Doug Wick

Doug Wick — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 16:29:00 +0000

Thanks all for the thoughtful comments!

@Marc It will be interesting to see not only which agencies succeed best at the “social evolution” – but also which strategies for getting there work the best.

@Aaron Thanks for cross-posting man! One thing that I think is interesting is that it seems like all agency competencies will need to pass through that social transformation. Some are more obvious, like tech and moderation, whereas others are more subtle (UI design, strategy, content).

@Scott I agree that we are on the cusp, most agencies seem to be dabbling and a few even making more concerted pushes. Think you’re right also that for any agencies that have more than 20 people it’s probably going to be easier to roll up with another firm than change tack so dramatically.

By: Scott Hepburn

Scott Hepburn — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 15:29:48 +0000

@Doug I think we’re just at the cusp of the social team’s emergence on the scene. Some agencies (marketing, ad, PR) will morph into social agencies. Some will add social departments. Still others will stay the way they are, filling a niche, while social specialist agencies will sprout and grow.

Ultimately, though, I think Aaron’s right. We’ll see social strategy and execution specialists continue to gain gravitas for the next few years, and we’ll eventually see many of them merge or be acquired. Addition by acquisition or merger just seems a more viable way to “become social” than organic, in-house evolution, given the glacial pace of change in large, old companies.

By: Interactive vs. Social: Does Your Agency Have the Right Skillset? » Media Emerging

Fri, 13 Feb 2009 15:23:44 +0000

[...] love Doug Wick’s breakdown of the distinct differences in skillsets required for interactive marketing vs. social marketing: [...]

By: Aaron Strout

Aaron Strout — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 20:10:54 +0000

Doug – great post. I’m just left a similar comment over on DougWick.com.

Having worked at and with several different agencies over the years, I couldn’t agree more. Today’s AOR’s continue to deliver the goods across traditional media and marketing as well as in newer channels like interactive, SEM and now social. However, to your point, I’ve talked to the heads of social media at a few of the large agencies and they have no interest in providing things like a platform and moderation/community management. They also — self admittedly — don’t traditionally keep UI designers on staff that are experts in branded community design (note: there are some that do so I’m not over generalizing on that last point).

It will be interesting to see how the evolution transpires over the next few years. One possible outcome could be the rolling up of strategic groups focused on social like Crayon and New Marketing Labs with a white label provider like Awareness or Jive into some of the larger agency conglomerates like WPP. At the end of the day though, we’ll just have to wait and see!

Best,
Aaron | @aaronstrout

By: Marc Fireman

Marc Fireman — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 04:06:29 +0000

Very good post…I also think it’s not just how agencies evolve, but which ones can evolve the fastest, and with the least heavy lifting. It’s a horserace between advertising, media, and pr. I know who is going to be last…the question is who is going to be first.