Over the past decade or so many agencies have struggled to add digital services to their offerings. Those who succeeded realized the shortcomings that came with adding digital to the mix. For one, digital often became viewed as a siloed production group, where creatives and account service with backgrounds in traditional advertising, promotion, and PR called the tune for the unwashed geekdom. As a result we saw thousands of examples of print design and one-to-many thinking introduced to the Web by agencies.
Eventually these agencies made attempts in “integrate” digital into the agency culture and process. Their motivation was laudable, but the operational vision of the new agency was almost always illdefined and the methods used to achieve integration were doomed to fail.
One of those methods is to cross-train the workforce so the entire agency would eventually become conversant in and capable of producing digital marketing solutions, at least in the areas of creative and strategy.
On top of enriching the knowledge of the workforce, agencies thought their re-minted employees would provide a utopian flexibility: The Art Director who designs a print ad on Monday would pick up the website design for the same campaign on Tuesday.
Keep in mind the senior management in most agencies, those leading the charge for “integration”, come from a traditional marcom background. Most have/had little hands-on experience in digital.
Frequently the existing digital staff is tasked with developing both the curriculum and training for the rest of the agency, and this training strategy introduces many interesting issues.
Curriculum and content development for training isn’t a trivial matter. We’re talking about taking a huge amount of information and finessing it into bite sized pieces. This is a huge time-suck the employees who happen to have the digital experience, the “trainers”.
Because many agency leaders lack understanding of digital themselves, they significantly underestimate what is needed to support the most basic training needs. There is also a sense of resentment that grows amongst those designated as “trainers”. At first they’re flattered by the idea of sharing their knowledge and skills. But after spending a few months spoon-feeding traditional brethern with their hard-earned experience, they realize the structure of the agency will still position them as a downstream implementor, and very few of their “students” will ever spread their wings and fly.
The biggest obstacle to the cross-training philosophy is that the vast majority of folks in agencies who aren’t already doing digital don’t have the interest, desire or aptitude for it. This comment isn’t meant to demean, but to point out a hard, cold reality. You can’t take a talented athlete in one sport, train them in a sport in which they have no inate interest or desire, and expect good results.
The same goes for agency folks. Digital requires a different mindset and skillset – skills that only improve by being continually immersed in the discipline.
Sure, Bo Jackson’s of the agency world exist, but the idea of creating an agency were the majority employees are both multi-disciplined and highly-skilled is nothing more than a pipe dream.
Drifting Creatives
Last week I found myself at two establishments in the St. Louis area that exemplify staying power and authenticity, 
I’m amazed to see the word “loyalty” misused so frequently in briefs, books, articles, etc. I believe what most author’s really mean is continuity, or at least I hope so.
Captivation is often a passive form of engagement: watching videos, listening to music, or viewing images. It’s important to understand there is a strong qualitative factor that separates apathetic media consumption from captivation. This is one reason I feel ‘time spent’ is an inadequate measure of true engagement. Ten minutes of exposure to second-rate content doesn’t carry twice the weight of a compelling experience lasting five minutes. I also consider single-player games, demonstrations, and e-learning applications interactive platforms for captivation.
Conversation is a highly interactive form of engagement and a fundamental characteristic of social media. Posting, commenting, and messaging are means for users to engage others in opinions and ideas. From a brand marketer’s perspective, conversations are a powerful force that can drive product awareness, consideration and affinity. Like captivation, conversations that are entertaining, emotional, or otherwise provide value are more engaging than conversations that don’t.
Collaboration through wikis, multi-player games, and work applications are other examples of engagement. Brands have only scratched the surface in building collaborative experiences that let consumers not only interact with each other, but with a brand in creating something interesting.
Creation is a form of engagement that encompasses two separate activities: making and sharing. Digital toys, drawing and music applications are just a few examples of platforms that allow users to make their own creations. Product customization and visualization features also fall into this category. Media sharing platforms that allow users to post and share images, video, and digital documents overlap the creation and conversation experience.
Commerce might be the most powerful form of engagement. The seemingly prosaic process of shopping and purchasing is often one of the most memorable interactions we ever have with a brand. Likewise, the experiential factors of seeking product information, quotes, and customer service have a critical impact on conversion and affinity.
Many types of engagement
Publishers and advertisers view engagement differently
In many ways, advertisers and publishers compete for attention – this is nothing new, but if a publisher is successful in growing highly engaged users, doesn’t that engagement come at the expense of the advertiser?
I’ve written a long diatribe on our industry’s attempts to define and measure engagement. I’ll post my thoughts here in bite-sized chunks over the coming weeks.
