In this series on managing the digital revolution, Ari Aronson and Stephan Argent collect insights from both the agency and the brand sides of the street.
This week, Marketing contributor Ari Aronson reaches out to One Advertising co-founder and CEO Ted Boyd to get an idea how the agency is navigating its way through the digital marketing revolution.
We have seen a shift from standalone digital agencies to a more integrated agency offering. How has digital impacted your org chart and agency offering? Is digital a separate P&L?
Digital agencies are largely viewed by clients as executional channel specialists, and in our experience, the majority of digital marketing programs still remain things bolted on to a campaign late in the process, almost as an afterthought. We believe at One that in order to be successful digitally, the planning process and brief have to be agnostic. Ironically though, in order to be truly agnostic an agency must have broad and deep digital capability integrated seamlessly into the entire offering the same way strategic planning, media and creative have been for years.
So our view is that in Canada at least, the integrated digital offering is here to stay and that clients will increasingly demand this from their agency partners. There will always be a need for players in the marketplace of course who have deep expertise in large scale technical builds, but they will not be leading the strategic brand conversations. At One, the digital team reports into our president in the same way account service, creative, media and strategic planning do, with a fully integrated P and L.
What’s your vision for the future of digital in your agency?
It would be the same as our hope for strategy, creative or media. Digital has come of age and we want it to be another important piece of our total agency offering. The name One implies unity and a unified point of view bringing balance, equilibrium and equality. In our agency, we want digital to show leadership of course, but we want it to do so in the context of the client’s business objectives.
What are the biggest challenges you’re facing when it comes to working with clients from a digital perspective?
I think the biggest challenge is the costs associated with many digital projects as well as the level of importance clients attach to digital in their organization. The executional components of a great digital campaign contain a lot of moving parts, many of which are quite intricate and potentially costly. Overall, while awareness has improved dramatically in the last decade as to client knowledge around what it takes to do great digital work, continuing efforts need to be made in this area. Agency partners should be conducting regular updates and/or education sessions for their clients.
Another challenge is that the digital function is not always clearly structured in client organizations. Ideally, the function should be embedded in the marketing team in a seamless way with every other knowledge set that comprises a successful marketer. However, given uneven knowledge and comfort levels with all things digital, many clients have carved out a specific digital role which can be extremely helpful in ensuring an even transfer of knowledge and execution across all parts of the marketing organization. Long term however, to achieve an optimal agnostic marketing plan and execution, the digital function should be embedded at the individual marketer level.
Are clients generally open or cautious when it comes to pushing digital boundaries?
I think clients are very open. If there is any caution, it’s around ‘if it is that big, how the heck do I manage it? Are we structured for success? Are we truly agnostic in the way we approach planning and the brief? Or is this an idea which demonstrates bias toward a particular media choice?’
I think intuitively everybody gets very excited by the twin notions of amplification and engagement and what a trans-media, agnostic campaign can do. I also think these structural challenges will get worked out over the next five to 10 years as people who grew up post-1980, and who remember the personal computer from their earliest days, assume increasingly senior roles. For these folks, digital is a state of mind, not a channel and I think that is going to make for some incredible opportunities in the years ahead.
What advice do you have for senior marketers when it comes to getting the most out of their traditional and digital agency partners?
I think it’s just to challenge, in the clearest possible terms, your agency partners to deliver the very best work, and I don’t think that means saying ‘Bring me great digital ideas.’ I think it means ‘Bring me a great, big or bold idea.’ Digital can obviously be a core component of that, but if we try to be clever and deliver great digital thinking from the outset to the detriment of other considerations, we are quite frankly failing ourselves.
How can clients help your agency do even better work for them?
By continually challenging themselves to deliver the clearest possible agnostic brief with the clearest desired business outcomes. Stripping down the brief to only the most relevant and important elements will result in much more focused and effective work.
What key lessons have you learned when it comes to doing great digital work?
Well, I can say with some humility and humour that as an early digital marketer I tried to make the conversation about digital, as did many of my fellow practitioners. It was always about us, the digital people. We would ask ourselves: ‘Why doesn’t the rest of the agency understand us? Why don’t they get it? Why don’t clients see how important this stuff is? Hey people, it’s about digital!’
Boy was I wrong. Then as now it was about the client and a focused agnostic brief. Digital has taken its rightful place at the table, but to say it’s deserving of standalone consideration, unless you have a very specific challenge or business issue to deal with, does a disservice to the client and even to the medium because you’re not enriching it with other opportunities. It is not and never was ‘about digital,’ so increasingly (and ironically) the best digital work comes from a clear understanding of this.
As an agency, how do you stay at the forefront of digital and social media and how do you lead clients when it comes to innovation and creativity?
We are constantly searching for new and innovative examples of creativity, technology, strategic thinking and media and how we can use these to collaborate more effectively with our clients and effect better business outcomes for them. A specific example of this is our recent launch of a publication called OneByte, which is curated by the agency and contains four stories centered on innovation and creativity gleaned from a wide variety of sources. It is delivered by email and is designed to allow the reader to complete the entire document in 10 minutes providing valuable learning with an immediate sense of accomplishment. Every aspect of our culture is infused with this approach to solving client problems, to helping them learn and to enriching their lives as marketers.
Ari Aronson is founder of Ari Agency, a boutique executive recruitment agency specializing in digital.
