Online & all other positions relative to the line.

I’ve been getting a lot of questions lately on where Belgian online and traditional agencies are going, should go, should have gone, who’s got the edge and why aren’t we wearing jetpacks yet.

I don’t have the answer, but it’s flattering people think I might.
I do have some thoughts on the subject.

1. Digital agencies are losing the edge on brand building but are in denial.

Most online agencies grew out of webdesign firms, they made websites. And the Internet was, in hindsight, a pretty boring place before it turned from a broadcast medium to a democratic publishing medium and a peer-to-peer communication medium (I’ll refer to this as Web2.0 from now, for old time’s sake). There was just websites, you could visit them, so people did.
But when the Web2.0 thing happened, they where on the ball, they knew what was happening, could guide their clients through the tumultuous times with words as engagement, conversation and others.
Social was the thing, so they created tools allowing people to connect with others through channels that where branded or brand-related.
At the same time they also continued making high-involvement, flash-heavy brand websites, because that’s just what their studio did.

But Web2.0, which was a term coined to describe the evolution, has arrived, it became: the web. That’s just what the web was now, a channel to communicate with peers, friends, express yourself et al.

So creating yet another tool to enable people to connect is not the way to go, they’re already connected, through channels they own themselves, and in which they don’t have to create yet another user account.
Yet some agencies are still creating brand/niche social networks/platforms. To which nobody signs up, digital ghost towns.

And out of the huge “brand experience” flashturbation websites, only one out of ten thousand hits it’s goals. Traffic- and relevancy- wise. Of the other 9999 some might get an insane amount of hits. From people who are interested in the Flash medium and live in countries where they don’t even sell your brand.

To recap this: They’ve been concentrating on *how* to engage consumers. But now that consumers are spoiled with ways to engage with each other, they should be concentrating on creating something to engage *with*.

So what is left?

- There will always be need for websites, online versions of brochures with information people might need someday. The smarter ones will also harness what’s related and out there and created by users.

- The Internet is the best platform for a CRM tool.

- The Internet is great for monitoring what’s being said about your brand.

- Use their technological expertise and lead the mobile evolution.

- DM

…

But having the lead in building a brand isn’t really happening.

It should be, because they had the edge, but they lost it.

Why?

What happened with digital or online is it evened out the playing field between brands and consumers. It goes beyond the Internet, It has changed society. The digital folks know this, it’s in their genes, it’s how they think. But taking that knowledge and using it in other media isn’t really happening.

I don’t know why.
It could be because when it looked like the two disciplines where converging a lot of them hired advertising veterans tot teach them the ropes and introduce an advertising culture. An outdated culture, making them lose their edge.
It could be because they’re persisting in the big, costly website/platform/network/flash site because that’s their business model, they’re used to selling man hours, not ideas.

So.
Since things have shifted from *how to engage*, to *something to engage with*, traditional agencies should have the edge.
Unfortunately:

2. Traditional agencies have the edge but are unaware of it.

They’re business built on creativity. Being creative is in their culture. No one should be more apt at creating something compelling that people will gladly engage *with*.

But it ain’t happening.
There’s several reasons I think.
At some point in the last ten years they figured out digital could no longer be ignored. So they looked for people working in Digital shops and hired them.
Depending on when that was gave them different kinds of talent.
If they did it right at the beginning, back in the old Web1.0 days they hired someone who was very good at making a website. Someone who didn’t have to worry about people visiting his website, but on how to keep them busy once they did.
If they hired a top talent during the Web2.0 rise, it would have probably been someone who could explain the whole social media thing.
Due to the evolution of the Internet, these people are now redundant, unless they kept up.
Today, they need creative talent.
To come up with things people will engage *with*.
Which you would think they have, and they do, unfortunately they’re unaware coming up with something to engage *with* is what they should do.
Because if the online agencies haven’t even figured that out, the guy who used to be in an online agency and now works in a traditional one probably hasn’t either.

But it’s not THAT simple.
The creative talent they have is trained in using broadcast media. The client buys a few seconds of people’s time in which the creative gets to send a short, concise message.
If you look at print ads in award shows, it seems to be a competition in “condense a message as much as possible”: one picture, no text, or the other way round. He who who condensed the most, wins.
Because I guess they figure: people are not interested in advertising, let us make our message so short that even when they flip through the page, they’ll get the message.

Digital doesn’t work that way.

In digital you have to MAKE people interested in advertising. And a concise ad is not interesting. Because the millions of other ads are concise too.
And all of them together is one thing: Static.

So their creatives need to hone their skills in a different discipline: be interesting, not concise.
(btw:if all this sounds pretty Russell Davies-y, it’s because it is)

They should also stop focusing on the Internet. Because the Internet was only the catalyst. It has now changed all our media-consuming habits.
In fact the advertising I recently engaged most with online where TV ads.

TV ads by foreign traditional agencies btw.

Well that’s what I think, what do YOU think?