Right to Reply: Lessons from i-level: differentiate or die
- Added:
- May 11, 2010
Last week i-level announced that it had gone into administration. In this Right to Reply article, Ed Stevenson at Marin Software argues that the digital agency’s demise, and their staff’s exodus to their bigger rivals, is a warning to other independents that they need to offer clients a different approach from the major agencies or face the same fate.
Like most people in the industry, I was shocked and saddened to see the news earlier this week that i-level had gone into administration and then this week that it has gone into liquidation.
i-level has been a real innovator in digital marketing, has some fantastic staff and for many years has flown the flag for independent agencies. Well over a hundred staff are directly affected by the liquidation and they are probably very angry and confused about what they did wrong.
It’s very early to be drawing conclusions, as the full circumstances around i-level’s collapse are not yet public and likely to be complex. I certainly don’t think the front line staff are at fault.
But as a broader point, it’s fair to say that the business of independents like i-level has been under significant pressure for some time as the network giants have caught up with the business of delivering search marketing execution. Just take a look at where i-level’s major clients have gone now – virtually all have opted for major network agencies.
For independents, it’s no longer enough to just be more efficient in their execution than the networks, though they certainly must be ruthless in this area too. Increasingly, independents need to also demonstrate how they are different from the networks.
For me, they are on to a winner if they exploit the fact that they – in some cases – have the potential to be far more flexible and agile, whereas the networks can to be constrained by their size and often can’t react as swiftly.
In real terms, this means the independents need to push on and embrace new innovations in search as well as take the lead on cross-media integration and on integrating social media into search. And then shout about the fact they’re doing this to the big advertisers!
Everyone would hope that what has happened at i-level remains an isolated case. But one thing is for sure – as the search industry continues to grow, the need to innovate and differentiate from the competition will become even more important.
By Ed Stevenson
European Managing Director
Marin Software
Read Ed Stevenson's Big Search Blog here.
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