Why an Advertising Agency needs to know Social Media

admin    Creative Web Advertising     Advertising, Agency, Know, Media, Needs, Social

Why an Advertising Agency needs to know Social Media

It’s not too late to teach an old dog new tricks. There are plenty of advertising agencies that still don’t get social media or don’t want to get it. It’s the Fear Factor – fear of the unknown, fear of change, fear of losing their client’s business, etc. Whatever the fear – they better overcome it fast.

Advertising Agencies

According to a recent TNS Media survey that asked more than 60 marketers in North America, France and the U.K. how their advertising agencies were navigating in the world of social media, the overwhelming response was, “Agencies don’t get it.”

Clients are putting more and more emphasis on social media but their agencies are not helping them. Clients complained that their agencies typically treat social channels like traditional media. In other words, their ideas are not backed up by practical skills in the area.

“I think traditional ad agencies have very little contribution to make,” Bryan Simkins, a marketing specialist at FedEx, told TNS. “They are mostly driven by their compensation models which are made for closed media. Those models don’t apply in open media.”

Jim Nail, chief marketing officer at TNS who conducted the survey, said: “You get the sense that agencies talk a good game. They put up a good presentation about what social media is, but when you get to implementing campaigns, the day-to-day management skills are not meeting the marketers’ expectations.”
The future of advertising is two-way, not one-way like so many traditional advertisers are used to. This will haunt ad agencies as more clients make social media a top priority – and put a lot of them out of business.

On The Right Track

All is not lost. Here are a few ways a traditional advertising agency can change their thinking fast:

Nearly 50 percent of the marketers who were polled in the TNS survey said social media efforts need to be handled at an executive level with “significant” resources.
An agency needs to do more than learn the etiquette of social media. It needs to make sure that everything from comments to blog posts to videos not only adds value, but does so with the kind of cleverness and creativity that will make it stand out.

Adapt new business models. Ad agencies are poorly structured to help client’s leverage opportunities with communities of shared interests. If they apply old models they can do more harm than good.
Stop being everything to everybody. You won’t appeal to everybody in your social media efforts so define your niche market and focus on that.

If your product or service is good – social media is great. If your product or service is bad, nothing is going to help – not even social media.

Finally, use social media to promote your agency. Social media forces your agency to do business the way it should have been done before social. It is about your audience, not about your agency. It forces you to lead with your core benefits and values. The minute you start to “sell your agency” you will lose your audience.

Carolyn Holliday, e-marketing manager at Fila USA, sums it up like this: “I really think that ad agencies need to focus heavily on how they can build excitement within the live space of the Internet. Outside of just placing ads, they need to start dialogues with existing and potential customers.”

Vesta Digital – a fully integrated website developer and social media marketing company has the resources and tools necessary to help advertising agencies with their social media efforts. Call today to learn more.

Related Creative Web Advertising Articles

If you enjoyed this article please consider sharing it!