You’re not the Messiah, you’re a very naughty PR/social media/digital/etc agency
February 12th, 2010 by Lloyd Gofton
It seems 2010 has started very brightly for most, and I’m happy to say that’s certainly the case for us. I’ve heard lots of talk of interesting briefs, new campaigns and renewed enthusiasm. Let’s face it most of us were very glad to see the New Year arrive, and so far so good.
However, there are always some habits that die hard, always at least one thing that has to drag us back, and for me that’s the non-stop preaching that comes from some corners of our great and varied communications industry.
By preaching, I don’t mean thoughtful insight that is designed to build conversation and add to the communities’ learning. I mean thinly veiled sales patter disguised as thought leadership, or in some cases not disguised at all and simply an attack on other approaches to the issue of digital communications/social media/combined traditional and social media, call it what you will.
Sometimes I think we need an industry referee to step in and give people a dose of reality when they get their preach on…a character like Brian’s mother in the Monty Python movie; The life of Brian, whose famous line was the inspiration for the title of this post “He’s not the Messiah, he’s a very naughty boy!”
Here’s the clip:
Perhaps Brian’s mother could put a bit more reality and a bit less fiction into the issue. After all, the most frustrating element for me is that in many cases not only are these agency sermons misguided, the preachers themselves know it.
Allow me to give you an example; company A: is a social media agency, approaching social media from a technical stand point as they understand the way the web works from a development and build angle. They know all there is to know about building communities, linking and useful multimedia. Company B also calls itself a social media agency but its strength comes from understanding social media from a communications stand point. Company B knows all there is to know about conversation, influencers and their contacts in the traditional media help them to reach influencers quickly to build social conversation.
Company A knows Company B has skills they don’t, so Company A goes out and talks about how great their approach is and how silly company B is for not being able to do the amazing things company A can.
That’s the game you may say, but there are three main points that get right on my nerves about this situation:
1. Company A and company B know that to deliver a full campaign they require each other’s skills, and it’s even likely that they partner with each other on the quiet to achieve the desired results behind closed doors. Or if not each other, (as that would be silly), very similar agencies.
2. Company A and company B both know that certain campaigns require specific skill sets, but won’t say that, and even if a client comes to company A with a campaign more fitting of Company B, company A will say they can do it, take the campaign on and deliver it via a partner….like company B.
3. Company A and company B know that in the long term their little squabbles will be academic as brands will expect one agency to fulfil the complete lifecycle of communications, including build, social media consultancy, PR, search, you name it. We’re now in the territory of company C (PR) company D (Search) company E (Digital) and company F (Advertising) (all of whom have similar relationships as company A and Company B). Both Company A and company B are recruiting and partnering with other agencies to deliver these skill sets but try not to talk about skills too far outside of their area until they are ready to announce something/someone.
So what are we left with? A whole load of puff. All the different companies talking about how smart their approach is and how naive their competitors are, scrabbling around trying to make their company reflect skill sets from A-D, or even the full range, as quickly as possible as everyone knows that’s likely to be the end game, but we can’t admit it yet as it might put our company at a disadvantage.
As a side note, in my opinion company C (PR) has been the whipping boy of the last few years. And friends, I have a confession, I have whipped that company. I come from a traditional PR background, and I know how slow the industry has been to react, so when I started Liberate Media with my business partner Wendy we wanted to offer a different sort of PR agency that understood traditional yes, but also social media. In retrospect I feel I too have been a naughty boy.
But, the PR industry is getting there and there are some smart agencies with great people delivering measurable campaigns. As a whole there is still a long way to go, but there is a marked improvement.
So where am I going with this? Well the inter-relationships between the agencies are obvious, the skills required to deliver an integrated communications campaign are diverse, and there aren’t many agencies out there that can, hand-on-heart, say they can deliver it all in-house.
So, if your campaign is totally delivered via your agency skill set, that’s great, well done, happy days. But if it isn’t, don’t get frustrated and lash out at skills you need but don’t yet have. Why not try to practise what we as an industry preach to our clients and get back into the open discussion around the issue. That’s one of the things that made this industry great and I’m beginning to fear we’re all being swallowed up by a great gold rush.
I’m not saying there should be a big agency love-in, we all have businesses to run and yes, that is the game, but this short term focus on who has the right approach and who owns social media is doing no one any good, and as we all know isn’t very realistic. So, why don’t we just be honest about what we have today and what we are looking to tomorrow.
This is a subject we’ll be looking at in more depth over the coming months, so apologies if this has come across as a bit of a rant, or if I have started to preach. That was not my intention. I think the industry we all operate in is one of the most open and exciting to be in, but more recently this nagging one-upmanship has crept in, and although competition is healthy and welcome, in some cases I feel it’s no more than propaganda, and that’s a dangerous path to go down.
Tags: agency, communications, digital, PR, Social media
