High Costs, Complexity Deferring Agencies’ Adoption of Emerging Marketing Technologies
September 2008
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NEW YORK—September 3, 2008—Marketing agencies stand at a critical crossroads. Changing consumer priorities, a proliferation of new media alternatives and increasingly complex multichannel integration requirements are driving up the pressure to develop and execute seamless, flawless campaigns. And clients are compounding the pressure, expecting their agencies to master an array of marketing execution tools just as well as they master the creation of a new advertisement, landing page or direct mail piece.
For all the complexity inherent in their work, though, agencies are only now beginning to awaken to the critical role that technology plays in their marketing process. And despite the emergence of some leading-edge visionaries, most agencies remain locked in a “wait-and-see” attitude when it comes to technology, hoping that their clients will ultimately show them the way to technological innovation.
That’s one of the findings of a new white paper released today by Winterberry Group, a leading strategic consulting firm focused on servicing marketing services, advertising and digital media companies. Sponsored by the Direct Marketing Association’s Marketing Technology and Direct Marketing Agency councils, the study—entitled State of the Agency: Digital Marketing and the Technology Driven Ecosystem—explores the challenges and changes impacting agency/client relationships in the digital world and the role that marketing automation will play in strengthening these relationships in the future.
The product of in-depth interviews and surveys with over 100 senior executives across the marketing services and marketing technology industry, the white paper identifies six key trends that are transforming the agency landscape. They are:
• Heightened economic pressures, media costs and a cluttered advertising landscape have motivated marketers to rapidly adopt nontraditional methods of building brand content, driving strong demand for digital advertising services—especially in Web 2.0 media
• The 24/7, real-time, global communication platform presented by the Internet has heightened competitive pressures and given rise to numerous execution and financial challenges (for both marketers and their agency partners alike) that are best resolved through the integration of comprehensive marketing automation tools and processes
• Seeking to maintain their influence in the marketing process, agencies are in the midst of an unprecedented wave of restructuring initiatives that typically include brand repositioning, service expansion, talent development and experimentation with new pricing models
• Marketing automation systems are garnering interest within the agency environment, but many feel it is too early to purchase enterprise-wide systems, opting instead for home-grown, customized solutions and external corporate licenses through client organizations
For all the complexity inherent in their work, though, agencies are only now beginning to awaken to the critical role that technology plays in their marketing process. And despite the emergence of some leading-edge visionaries, most agencies remain locked in a “wait-and-see” attitude when it comes to technology, hoping that their clients will ultimately show them the way to technological innovation.
That’s one of the findings of a new white paper released today by Winterberry Group, a leading strategic consulting firm focused on servicing marketing services, advertising and digital media companies. Sponsored by the Direct Marketing Association’s Marketing Technology and Direct Marketing Agency councils, the study—entitled State of the Agency: Digital Marketing and the Technology Driven Ecosystem—explores the challenges and changes impacting agency/client relationships in the digital world and the role that marketing automation will play in strengthening these relationships in the future.
The product of in-depth interviews and surveys with over 100 senior executives across the marketing services and marketing technology industry, the white paper identifies six key trends that are transforming the agency landscape. They are:
• Heightened economic pressures, media costs and a cluttered advertising landscape have motivated marketers to rapidly adopt nontraditional methods of building brand content, driving strong demand for digital advertising services—especially in Web 2.0 media
• The 24/7, real-time, global communication platform presented by the Internet has heightened competitive pressures and given rise to numerous execution and financial challenges (for both marketers and their agency partners alike) that are best resolved through the integration of comprehensive marketing automation tools and processes
• Seeking to maintain their influence in the marketing process, agencies are in the midst of an unprecedented wave of restructuring initiatives that typically include brand repositioning, service expansion, talent development and experimentation with new pricing models
• Marketing automation systems are garnering interest within the agency environment, but many feel it is too early to purchase enterprise-wide systems, opting instead for home-grown, customized solutions and external corporate licenses through client organizations
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