I have just finished moderating the talk “Digital Hybrid- The Future of Agency Evolvement” at ad:tech Singapore. Attendance at the event overall was good. With probably 600 to 700 people at the keynote speeches. However all panel discussions were not so well attended. It seems people are keen to hear more about indepth case studies and/or different topics.

Maybe ad:tech should crowdsource the topics for next years conference, and maybe even nominate who they want to see speaking.

Overall however the audience seemed quite interested in hearing about ‘the agency of the future’. So a big thanks to Haresh, Sally, Calvin & Anand for their insights.

Came across an interesting post on Adweek a couple of days ago about how some agencies were shaping their creative leadership in reaction to ‘increasingly flatter structures at agencies’. Some points covered were how the current CCO’s needed to posses business savvy skills on top of being traditionally and digitally creative. The post goes on to quote Mike Hughes, president and co-CCO of Interpublic Group’s The Martin Agency, describing it as much more of an account management job than a creative one.

Thankfully , the article managed to stay away from the tired traditional vs digital natives debate. What it did do however, was remind me of the obsolete definition of a creative from our industry at large.

What does being a creative mean in our industry?

Ask around and you would get the standard answers about people who can visualize, write and code well. A creative means you are either a visual or sound artist, designer, writer or a coder? While i do not entirely disagree with these definitions, i feel that it is a discounted take which is preventing agencies from meeting the demands on the evolving industry.

Everyone in an agency needs to be a creative. Creative meaning strategically sound, effective and imaginative at the same time. Why split hairs between managing, client servicing, programming or art and copy departments? Those are just skill sets as far as we are concerned. There are as many wholly unimaginative and uncreative designers, as there are creative client servicing folks. It doesn’t really matter what we do with our skill sets. It’s more about how we do it.

It’s not really a new concept anyway. Our time has seen many creative entrepreneurs, business people who take on their challenges in totally unexpected but innovative ways, people like Bill Gates, Richard Branson and Steve Jobs. Who can argue that David Ogilvy or Martin Sorrel is not creative?

Creative thought leadership can work wonders, regardless of what you actually do with it. Creating a culture of creative thought leadership and allowing it to permeate into every role & aspect of the agency would directly translate into efficient and emergent services. It doesn’t matter if the client’s brief called for strategy or visual impact, traditional or digital work. Once this culture is truly in place, the agency gains a genre spanning team of industry leaders.

So guys, let’s not sell ourselves short. We are definitely more than a bunch of people who happen to be able to choose a nice color or put fancy words and charts together.

For some time I have been thinking about the structure of Client Servicing teams.  Traditionally, most agencies follow two particular models: they either have an Account Manager that provides both client servicing and project management (supported by traffic managers) OR they have both Account Managers and Project Managers.  Agencies create their own names and titles, but in essence, we all know what it takes to service clients and deliver projects regardless of the nomenclature.  The real question is, who does it better? A single AM or a combo AM-PM team?  Or is it something different? Hmm…

At TUS we structure our Client Servicing department into AM and PM teams long ago.  This allows each individual to really hone in on their specialty and focus on not only what they like to do, but also on what they are good at doing.  It is very rare that you find a suit that is also a fantastic project manager or vice-versa.  So, why not get suits and PMs to be GREAT at what they do, instead of just being good.  On the one hand, a great AM is one that understands its clients (personally and professionally); has a deep understanding of brands; is insightful,   ingenious and analytical when it comes to strategy development; and has a keen aptitude for business (as it relates to marketing impact on consumer influence and ROI).  A great PM, on the other hand, is one that has a keen interest and knowledge of technology; is process-driven; and has a commitment to project delivery that upholds on-time and on-specification requirements.  AMs and PMs serve one purpose in the client’s eyes, but they speak very different languages.

Now, what is beyond that?  Yes, we have all defined career paths, and growth for our team members, and for the most part we have standardized titles such as Account Executive, Project Manager, Account Director, etc.  Most agencies have adopted the AM-PM team model by now, but the question now becomes, where is the depth in that model? This is the time to make the model better not just follow it!

We have created yet a new role within our agency structure- Client Service Executive.  Client Service Executives (CSE) will serve as the only hybrid member in the client servicing team.  These individuals will support our AMs and PMs with the day-to-day operational and executional tasks; while at the same time, they will learn the tools of the trade and the TUS way for both account and project management.  This programs gives individuals wanting to be in client servicing with the opportunity to discover what it means to be an agency client service team member! Through time, the CSEs will naturally start showing tendencies for one track or the other (AM vs PM). It will then be our job, as management, not only figure to listen to what they like, but also to help them develop what they are good at doing and set them on the right path.  We will then hire more CSEs and continue to build our team, while allowing everyone the opportunity to grow together and form the new client servicing department.

Now, on to my search for our new CSEs…

In this article – which was a reaction to an original post on Adweek – I argued that I do not think there is any digital shop in Asia which can lead Brand Strategy (for large scale multinational companies).

This got some heated reaction from a few people. Not surprising, many people confuse the issue. This is not to say Digital Shops don’t understand brands, or cannot develop great strategic campaigns which build brands.

In the end actually I am getting tired of media trying to make division between ‘traditional’ and ‘digital’ agencies. My end point was to agree with Barry Wacksman of R/GA about recognizing “agencies of the digital age” whatever their background.

Digital shops as Asia’s new brand leaders?

In the US digital agencies are transforming from simple to web gurus to leading the overall brand strategy for their clients. Euan Wilcox, business director of The Upper Storey, explains why most digital outfits in Asia are not ready to take this step and how size and talent is key to this eventual evolution.

Adweek recently reported that more web shops in the US were starting to be appointed as lead agencies on brands, tasking them with traditional work as well as digital duties. In Asia we are seeing the same trend of agencies leading campaign engagements.

However, engaging at a ‘brand’ level is something I do not think Asian digital agencies are ready for. And I do not necessarily think it is an issue of digital or not – but a more practical issue of size and talent.

The full article on Marketing Interactive.

Re: Clients Unimpressed with Agencies’ Digital

Pardon the baby analogy (just became a first time father last month) but say your newborn makes a wheezing sound when drinking his milk. Are you likely to see your family general practitioner (GP) who has treated three generations of your family with the same old tried and tested cough mixture? Or will you see a highly recommended pediatrician who probably knows baby-related issues best? I think you catch the drift.

Therefore, the findings stated in this article came as little surprise to me, especially so when traditional creative agencies (my GP in this case) proclaim themselves to be digital marketing specialists by hiring a couple of digital “evangelists” or acquiring digital shops only to have them create online versions of TVCs and print ads (the same old cough mixture). Or worse still, when their idea of a social media strategy for their client is a Facebook game or a fan page.

What most do not get is that digital marketing isn’t about creating brochureware online and that creating a Facebook fan page or a Twitter account doesn’t constitute a social media strategy. More importantly, digital isn’t merely another communication delivery channel/media, though as one, it has become more pervasive and relevant than ever before. Digital is a way of life which is intrinsically linked to technology. Think email and instant messaging, search engines, social commerce, digital TV, electronic newspapers, the iPOD, eBook readers, GPS on mobile phones, etc. It has changed where, how and what we use to communicate, search for information, purchase that new notebook, watch (and interact with) our favourite TV show, consumer our daily news, listen to our music, read our books, find the nearest petrol station, and the list goes on. Utilising these technologies for brand building, marketing and business benefit requires one to embrace change and innovation – which most traditional creative agencies find difficult to do for a variety of reasons.

Why specialist digital marketing agencies, and particularly independent ones, are better at accepting change and embracing innovation is simply because we are nimble (and therefore flexible) and because we are in the business of leveraging technology (which is in constant and rapid evolution) to create marketing impact for our clients. In fact, our very survival depends on our ability to evolve and innovate.

Another reason why specialist digital marketing agencies (and often media agencies as well) are the preferred port of call for clients looking to invest seriously in digital marketing is due to our understanding and investment in the area of tracking, i.e. analytics. Admittedly much still needs to be done (even in the case of the specialist digital agencies in this part of the world) to strengthen on our analytics competencies. Even more needs to be done to educate clients on how digital ROI is measured if we want to see digital spends increase to the levels seen in the West – lack of ROI understanding or measurement appears to be the biggest barrier to clients increasing their budget on digital marketing.

Perhaps most threatening to the traditional agencies, specialist digital marketing agencies (and particularly the large independent ones) are steadily evolving into creative business consultants, i.e. technology not just for marketing communications, but also for driving business growth for clients through customer relationship management, product innovation, and channel development. This certainly seems to be the trend in the U.S. and in Europe where a host of big brands have started to engage “digitally bred” creative business consultants (e.g. SapientNitro) for strategic marketing campaigns as opposed to their traditional creative counterparts.

Will we see a similar trend in Asia and therefore a growing role and relevance of specialist digital agencies to big brands in Asia looking for innovative business solutions? Well, let’s just say that one can’t think of any compelling reasons to suggest otherwise.

For the record, my GP diagnosed my son’s wheezing to be the result of a cough while the pediatrician correctly identified it to be a reflux issue. As you can imagine, I’m likely to be seeing the pediatrician for some time to come (as much as I swear by my GP) when it comes to my little one.

There’s a reason why there’s a term called specialists.

And yet we hear so much that it is ‘new’. Even the “web” is 15 years old and as Heidi Klum might say on Project Runway – “that is like dog years”.

Born during the Cold War need to have a technology edge, in the days when Sputniks were the uber technology of the day and Neil Armstrong’s footsteps were fresh on the moon, ARPANET laid the foundation for today’s internet and then the web 2.0 world we know today.

So why the slow uptake? Not by consumers of course – penetration rates are through the roof – IDA is laying down fiber optic cables with typical Singapore government speed and efficiency. But adoption by Business in general in Singapore.

What are we doing to make the most of our broadband leadership? Why does Singapore languish with 2-3% online spend? Why do we plan one ‘edm’ at a time and think online is an add-on to some ATL plan?

The internet is 40 and here to stay. As is technology in general – as a tool for business efficiency and innovation there has been nothing like it for two hundred years.

And while this year has been great (to make clients try new things), if Singapore will be a leader of great new technologies and new ways to engage consumers – we have to be faster in accepting change.

I would not be saying “Invading Asia” as a heading, but I would be happy to talk about making a home here – especially in Singapore. But despite the heading, some of the things they quoted in this article are certainty a reflection of our opportunity for TUS…

Working in Asia (pdf)

On the whole, like other developed markets, Australia has its fair share of big and powerful independents. In Asia this is not necessarily the case. Multinational agencies and brands tend to dominate. Euan Wilcox, business director at agency The Upper Storey, says: “Unfortunately Asian clients still trust multinationals too much.

“They trust the name,” he says. “In London and New York the best and most dynamic agencies are independents. But in Asia you have to have the name. But that is our opportunity – to build a name that is independent but has the credibility of a multinational.”

The Upper Storey, which has offices in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and India, is bucking this trend and has worked with LG, Dell, Nokia and Nikon. Wilcox has worked in Asia for the past five years, following a stint in Europe, and feels that in the Asian business environment “anything goes”. “While budgets are smaller and the work arguably less sophisticated, the business environment is more dynamic,” he says. “Thus it is a better environment for things to change and business opportunities to come up.”

The market dynamics of Asia vary massively from country to country. While budgets in Singapore might be small for a national campaign, those in China and Japan would be huge in comparison. And while some clients are risk-averse and less spontaneous, others in places such as Indonesia are more willing to push the envelope. And as business growth in Asia skyrockets while stagnating in the West, the common belief is the deluge of Australians heading to Asia will grow stronger.

Wilcox believes there is nothing like working in Asia “in terms of developing skills needed in a globalised world”.

“Ten to 20 years here will pay off much more significantly than in the United States or Europe,” he says. “Australians have to wake up to Asian business opportunities more. Spending time here will help them do that much better than in Australia.

I was happy to host Day Two of the Social Media World Forum Asia in Singapore last week. Overall we don’t spend much time at conferences – preferring to do the work that will be talked about in future. But some great contacts were made and some interesting (young) companies are out there doing interesting things. More about the conference here.

My preview to Day 2.

Social Networking World Forum Asia Day Two

To be part of an event like this is to be part of something that could potentially make a serious difference to your point of view. Whether it be the connections you make, the lessons you learn, or the ideas that are sparked. I hope we can help make that sort of difference to you today.

There is one thing for sure about the digital marketing and technology world – it is brimming with buzz words, catch phrases and over-hype. I am a cynic (but like to think an early adopter too) and we are right to be cynical about anything that is over-hyped. We are right to be cautious when easy solutions are presented.

But behind every bit of ‘buzz’ and every ‘irrational exuberance’ is a clear fact. That things are changing and what is behind that change is significant. Social Media is significant. An in a long line of fads it will certainly make its mark on business, on marketing and on people (or is that because of people?)

In Day One you looked at where we are today and where it could go in the future. We talked about how it fits within the mix and how to build communities which are at the core of social networking. Today our speakers want to extend this to the area of Public Relations and also how it will affect TV or TV 2.0. And then in the afternoon we will have two sessions on Mobile Social Networks.

So while I very much hope that these talks are informative and the discussions help bring understanding and insight – what I hope the most is that they spark ideas, that they help create new thinking in how you can approach your business or customers.

Ultimately I hope that they lead to Action – so that the buzz, no matter how irrational, has lead to change which is the one common denominator behind the world we are dealing with today.

Facebook Lite versus Twitter

Facebook Lite is a very smart move by Facebook to consolidate an ever-growing social networking captive audience to a single platform, i.e. why use 2 platforms when one can do it all and do it quickly? Facebook Lite is definitely a threat to Twitter, no doubt about it. Most folks who have Twitter accounts also have Facebook accounts. What if Facebook Lite provides users with a tool very similar/better than Twitter? What if their service is far superior in dealing with things like spam (a serious problem twitter continues to struggle with and always have)? What if the service as a whole is superior? They have a MASSIVE platform to work from – these guys are not starting from scratch, they already have a much more popular service than twitter and are not little-leaguers when it comes to social networking.

I’d say Facebook Lite has a high chance of winning greater market share from Twitter, but only after a 12 months at the very least. Why? Twitter has a massive following in the West, where most tech and social media opinion leaders reside. Twitter gives those who don’t want a MySpace or a Facebook a way to still keep in touch with people. It’s easier than instant messaging and less costly than text messaging. It’s a great tool to get one message out to everyone quick and allows people to check on other people when those people want. That’s what the main feature of Facebook Lite needs to be about – giving people a quick and easy way to keep in touch with people and broadcast messages.

Twitter should be very concerned, especially in Asia where Facebook has a much larger following than Twitter. I suspect Twitter will try to expand its offering to compete head on with Facebook, at least in the United States.

The use of mobile devices with social media is a huge growth area. Why? Smartphones manufacturers like Apple, RIM and Nokia have immensely improved the processing speed and browsing experience of their devices. Bandwidth is increasing by the day. People are more mobile and want to express their thoughts and opinions real-time. The trends are obvious.

P.S. Facebook recently acquired a start-up company from Silicon Valley called FriendFeed, which allows members to see what their friends are doing online and share content. It has been described as a potential “rival to Twitter in its ability to conduct real-time search.

… well, maybe not anymore. This old saying and its close cousin “Nobody ever got fired for buying a XXXX” may be in serious trouble. Personal experience has taught me a harsh lesson with brands I should have been able to trust – those that create premium products, who have focused perhaps a little too much on cultivating an image. These, I feel, have forgotten the fundamentals and the magic of great product design (my hand-reared calf leather luggage that can’t be carried is testament to that).

While this process might have been happening for some time, there is nothing like the mother of all recessions to come along to completely dispel the myth of the indispensable brand. Recently a colleague told me to trust a particular contract because it was backed by an ABC Fortune 100 brand – but in days when Lehman can go under, GM is propped up with taxpayers’ cash and your IT supplier can be gone tomorrow, you have to do more than trust a brand. You have to do some homework and ensure that your company, your partner or your supplier can still walk the talk.

And this gives rise to a renewed focus on customer relationships and corporate communication for our clients. Reaching out to core customers and keeping an open dialogue about your business and the economy at large is certainly getting some renewed and much needed interest. Retention, retention – reassurance, reassurance – it is going to be a long ride.