Being a PR agency at the same pitch table with other agency partners in the pursuit of new business is common practice today. It’s a new marketing sandbox, ladies and gents. It’s crowded out there, elbows are out and it’s a little less polite. But the good news is the sandbox is getting bigger and there is lots of room for everyone.
Today’s client prospect requires a marketing communications program firing on all cylinders. That means advertising, branding, direct response and digital, with multiple parties collaborating on the same client mandate. Whether it’s thought leadership, earned or paid media, experiential or online, clients want the best strategy, the best content and best creative to tell a brand story. And sure enough, no one agency can do it all.
The pitch model used to be simple: Get a client brief, assemble a kick-ass marketing team and ensure everyone clearly understands what position they are playing. The lines were very distinct, we all had a piece and no one stepped on each other’s toes. (You have just got to believe the term “playing nice in the sandbox” was coined by some ad executive in conversation with a client while trying to ensure all agencies get a chance to work on the business). We all knew and respected the lead agency, understood our role and worked together in the spirit of collaboration and partnership where the client’s success was paramount. Most important, the model worked.
But something has happened over time to disrupt those finite boundaries of marketing definitions and roles. The ecosystem’s lines are a lot greyer. The definitions are looser, with more wiggle room for interpretation when it comes to what is paid versus earned. And the new “C” word is content, not creative. We talk about developing a “voice” for a brand, not copy, and no longer are brands in the business of enlightening a consumer, but rather of engaging and listening to them.
Perhaps the biggest driver of change is the ascendance of social media, which has levelled the playing field for anyone selling anything to anybody. Hell, you don’t even have to sell anything; you can just talk, participate and hang around the social media water cooler. You can pour your content into a (virtually free) pipeline that gives the minority a voice and democratizes marketing for the masses.
As marketers, we didn’t walk or run to social media, we stampeded collectively towards it, staking ownership rights, planting flags and laying claim to guru and subject matter expert bragging rights.
But herein lies the fundamental problem for marketers working with clients, working with partner agencies. Who owns the social media strategy and who owns the deliverables? Our traditional views of marketing were simple. There were only two ways of looking at it, above the line or below the line, and we all knew which side we fell on. But social media is neither. It is outside the lines. Which agency gets to spearhead social media campaigns? Who is better equipped? Who has the brand engagement? Who knows the technology better? Who knows the client better? Who can write better? Well, let me tell you what I think: There is room for ALL of us!
The marketing ecosystem that exists for our tangible disciplines of direct, paid, earned, etc., still applies in the world of social media. Today’s marketing sandbox is more exciting and it keeps changing everyday as we pick up shiny new toys and learn how to play with them effectively.
It allows us to collaborate with each other and with our clients like never before. In the end, it is the client who will decide on the “best in class” agency to take lead on brand voice, blogger relations, narrative, technology, creative, etc., and that may just come down to who they like to work with best. There isn’t one digital shop, PR firm, or ad agency that can do it all well. Clients know that, so let’s not pretend otherwise.
Julie Rusciolelli is founder and president of Maverick in Toronto.
