Agencies of the future: Top five wish list

The report, from global services firm Sapient, was based on a poll of  500 marketing managers in the UK, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland and Sweden on their attitudes about what the “agency of the future” will be—and what top qualities are being sought after by organisations. 

The results revealed that one in four organisations have already switched, or will consider switching from a marketing agency to an agency with a greater knowledge of the digital space.

The results demonstrate that marketers are recognising the need to make greater use of digital marketing with “pull interactions,” such as social and interactive media, which are becoming increasingly relevant over traditional mass media "push interactions.” 

Germany is leading the way in the adoption of digital media, with the UK lagging behind.

Based on the survey results, Sapient Interactive, Sapient’s marketing services group, has created the following top five wish list for the “agency of the future”: 

1. Digital Marketing Needs to be Offered as an Integral Services Offering

Digital marketing is beginning to challenge long established techniques, such as direct marketing.  Respondents believe that the level of digital marketing is set to increase by 45% over the next 12 months.  The growth in the UK is expected to be 24%.

2. Digital Marketing Knowledge is Crucial

Just over one in four companies have switched, or plan to switch to agencies with a greater knowledge of digital media within the next 12 months.  Currently, only a quarter (26%) of UK marketing managers interviewed were ‘extremely confident’ that their current agency is well poised to take their brand through the challenges and opportunities of interactive advertising and marketing media.

3. Be Creative and Understand the Brand

The most important areas of expertise required for agencies are to be creative (88%), show brand knowledge (80%) and have a good understanding of consumer behaviour (72%).

4. More Use of “Pull Interactions" and Virtual Communities

When trying to engage consumers with their brand, 69% of UK company marketers want their agencies to use “pull interactions”—online communities such as Facebook—rather than traditional “push” campaigns.  The results show that UK marketers are currently least interested in using social networks, while businesses in Switzerland and Germany are most likely to see value in engaging with consumers via social networks.

5. Practice What You Preach

Over a third of all UK respondents (34%) believe it is important that agency employees participate and use the same social networking and digital media that they recommend to their own clients.

Commenting on the trends, Nigel Vaz, vice president responsible for Sapient Interactive in Europe, said: “results in the UK suggest that marketers are moving towards digital channels to communicate, with 19% of respondents having changed agency in the last 12 months alone. Although Europe still lags behind North America in terms of adoption, 30% of respondents are interested in leveraging public and private virtual communities to understand more about their target audience.”

“As the survey confirmed, companies worldwide are planning to expand their usage of digital marketing,” added Vaz.  “While all countries surveyed are expected to show increases in digital marketing, the relative change will vary considerably from country to country.  With Sapient’s expertise at helping clients take advantage of the intersection of marketing and technology, we are perfectly positioned to be the organization that can help European companies successfully integrate digital campaigns within their marketing mix.”

Survey Methodology

The Agency of the Future Survey, conducted by Redshift Research in August 2008 and commissioned by Sapient, measured current and future usage of digital marketing activities among 500 companies employing more than 1,000 employees across the UK, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden and the Netherlands.

Source: www.sapient.com