The digital marketing agency is in the ascendancy and it would be tempting to see the recent increase in the number of such firms as a flash in the pan once that new fangled thing the internet has quieted down.
Firstly, the internet is not set to plateau – the first half of this century will be marked by a rapid growth in digital commerce and social networking. Secondly, an alarmingly small number of the existing marketing, advertising and PR companies really understand how digital marketing works.
And that’s a sad fact. There’s no scientific basis for this claim of course, but when talking to the large London media agencies, you get a sense of there being slowly left behind by a changing world. They hold onto the old strategies and concepts, and pay lip service to things like SEO and PPC.
Okay, they tend to create new digital departments, or maybe buy a digital marketing agency to supplement their skill sets, but it’s almost done as a necessary add-on. Something they have to have because their clients have heard of SEO and PPC and want their agencies to be abreast of the latest developments.
But there’s the rub. They almost sit outside of the traditional agency; the young pretenders who’ve been invited to the party, but have to suit outside and watch the bigger children enjoy the fun.
And that, for many of the old established agencies, will prove their downfall. Unless they fully embrace the new digital strategies, they will be doomed; left behind in a race to take marketing to new horizons.
Attribute to: Neil Martin, Cayenne Red.
Neil Martin is a UK SEO Consultant at Digital Marketing Agency Cayenne Red and is a regular contributor to the media on how companies market themselves in the digital age.