Nowadays, people think that everyone and thier mothers blog.  Hell, I thought that too.  That's why I was surprised when I came across this Pew Internet Research study that pretty much says less than 19% of the U.S. population (ages 18-74) actually has thier own blog.  I think the reason here is simple: it's tough to stay consistant with something that isn't directly earning you income.

I could go on and on about why I blog, why I think it's important, and why I continually turn to blogs for information over more traditional media sources, but it's really besides the point.  The important thing to note, is that bloggers may be becoming an endangered species in the age of social media.

In a recent New York Times article, it seems research suggests that less and less people are turning to blogs in an age where social media is essentially an all-encompassing news source.  Michael McDonald, a high school senior who used a blog to show off his videos doesn't blog anymore.  Instead, he posts his videos to Facebook where he'll immedietly be recognized by his peers without having to hassle with the management of content system/stream.  It's easier and more accessible to users.  But guess what; you don't own the content.

If the future is blogging, count me in.  You own the media, you build a readership, and you learn skills that may be extrememly hard to come by in the near future when everyone else is knee-deep in immediete/short term social networking speak. 

Then again, research also says less and less people are reading blogs.  So, hell, maybe we should all just give up and pay for search.

In advertising, it seems like we often get caught up in the idea of creativity.  Sure it’s the creative that sells product, entertains audiences, and captivates consumers, but in the end, there’s nothing without strategy.  Oftentimes it helps to look outside the walls of advertising for knowledge that’s relative, but differentiated enough to bring a new perspective to the idea of a successful campaign.  For me, I didn’t stray too far in identifying a model rooted in design but tied extremely close to the often overlooked but increasingly important aspect of advertising: research.

The 360-degree research model, created by Ron Pierce of SKD, was originally crafted to illustrate the life cycle of product design specifically created for the re-design of a hearing aid, but globalized for work across all brands and product lines.  They crafted this model to keep the focus on the end user throughout the product development process. This approach helps remind them that the process wasn’t about what they were adding to their portfolios, or even about what a corporation would like to add to its product line.  It was about providing an in-demand product for an end-user.

I think research is often overlooked in advertising.  You get a client, you sell an idea, you run a campaign, and you judge success on number of impressions...at least that’s what you used to.  Now, there’s a much more thorough process necessary to provide a truly compelling campaign for a client.  The new model looks a little something like this:

Start with exploratory research. This is the time where researchers/media planners/strategists deliver findings and insights to the creative team and client.  This step is usually carried out by interns, people without the tools and technology to truly dig up insights.  Successful companies integrate with firms rooted in this research process.

Keep researchers involved continuously. We must keep assessing creative, media placement, and analytics with users to ensure that we have properly interpreted their needs into the end product.

Meet with users again and again. This is where social networking comes in.  Have conversations about your campaigns.  Measure their online currency and monitor online conversations.  If things aren’t going as originally planned, be proactive in identifying why the end user is unhappy.

As you’ll see from the illustration above, everything should be rooted in research and that research should never come to an end.  Creativity drives the campaign, but its reason for being lies in the research.  Is there room for a new position in advertising?  Is the word “engineer” really that far off?  Finding talent that can dive into a product category, conceive ideas around it, monitor how it affects consumers, and step back to subjectively analyze  the rights and wrongs associated with it?  It’s a difficult proposition and it translates way past design, but it’s something we need to get used to, aquatinted with, and aligned with in order to be successful in the future.

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One question I’m continually asked in regards to what I do is “what makes your agency different?”  When I was with Talk + Play, I worked in the communications field (specifically social).  There wasn’t a whole lot of branding (other than keeping design consistent across all platforms) and there were no real elements of creativity.  Where I did have a one up was channel planning and execution, specifically in the fields of social network management and blog seeding, two effective, yet extremely small parts of the overall puzzle.  

A lot of new agencies are born as interactive only.  Freelance designers and programmers are starting to realize that they can make a killing on fancy sites and CMSs built almost entirely in Wordpress.  Throw some social media buttons in the corner of the page and you’ve got $5,000 bucks in your wallet and a $250/month website maintenance fee coming your way for the next few years.  Obviously I’m oversimplifying the process, but I don’t think the overall idea is too far off.

So what does the future hold?  Is interactive the answer?  Is traditional officially dead?  Is PR the new strategic frontier?  Are media buying moguls going to monopolize the market?  We don’t have to look much further than Forrester’s 2010 white paper “The Future of Agency Relationships” to see where the industry may be headed.

The first thing to note is that no singular agency has mastered this new marketing model.  The outbound message (see TV commercial) approach that traditional advertisers and media buyers grew up on is over.  The short-term, low interaction of direct marketing companies have lost out to high interest, long term brand experiences brought on by some of the more innovative shops.  The interactive agencies are chugging along, but are likely to come to a halt after clients realize they cannot depend on an interactive agency to produce holistic 360-degree marketing programs.  With the current model the way it is, the only true way to cultivate communication across the board is to establish integrated partnerships to piece together the entire marketing puzzle.

So what else does Forrester say about the agency relationships of the future?  

Creative needs to be media specific. There’s no single concept that can be carried from TV, to print, to Facebook, to youtube.  Finding ways to integrate different mediums is crucial, but the creative must cater towards the specific channel to truly maximize the model.

Everything can be measured.  In the past, campaigns were measured by impressions meaning “this many people may read this” or “this many people subscribe to this channel”.  Now it’s about getting people to share things, talk about them, and engage them offline as much as on.  Agencies can no longer guess who they’re reaching, they really need to know.

Interactive agencies will die.  Interactive shops must innovate and integrate in order to succeed.  As all shops move into interactive (they all are) the niche market for an interactive only shop will die out.  Without media capabilities to carry information across multiple channels, their very existence will be at risk.

At Schupp Company, I think we’re doing a lot of things right.  We’re rooted in analytics.  We carefully plan/research prior to any and all programs and projects.  We plan for success, we don’t just hope for it.  We’re rooted in traditional, experienced in guerilla/viral, and exploring the unknown abyss of digital/interactive.  We have a media department in house who can carry our platforms across every channel from Twitter to Time to TLC.  We’re firmly integrated with partner PR firms who know any and everyone in the industries we field and follow.  Our account side brings strategic thinking, the creatives bring the ideas and innovations.  Most importantly we execute. 

So overall, what makes my agency different?  I’d say unlike many, we’re extremely well-suited for the future. How about you?

As we move forward, keep an eye on industry trends.  Is Forrester right or are they completely missing the boat.  They may be an extremely credible source, but no one can ever be spot on.  From a high-level standpoint - I think they’ve won me over. Once again, how about you?

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