The Agency of 2020

Not only is it a new year, but a new decade, and that gets people excited for change. That means, for better or worse, upheaval and transformation. But that’s just the intentional side of things. 2020 is set to be one of turmoil and surprises all over the world.

Brexit. The US Presidential elections. Civil wars. Coups. Protests. Climate change. Collapsing governments.

All are happening as we speak, and more are expected to come. There is barely a place in the world that won’t be directly or indirectly affected. The road ahead is unclear.

Uncertainty makes clients nervous, and they may be hesitant to spend. It’s an understandable position, so as an agency you don’t want to get caught out by any surprises, while you also want to be able to calm the nerves of your clients where possible.

One way to do this, along with keeping abreast of political and economic global events, is to track the world’s conversations yourself. By doing this you can see what new topics are coming to the fore before it’s too late.

For example, our survey tool Qriously can be used to quickly poll people all around the world to see what people are thinking. The proof is in the pudding as they say, so here’s an example to show how powerful Qriously is.

In the 2017 UK General Election, most polls were predicting a Conservative Party majority, with the Labour Party expected to get between 33-36% of the vote. In the end, the election saw a Conservative minority government with Labour securing 41% of the vote.

Only two polls called this outcome, one by Survation and the other by Qriously, the latter predicting Labour’s support to the number.

This type of polling, or market research in this case, can let you get specific questions to people directly, giving you the data you need to prepare for the future.

Combining this with the type of industry monitoring we mentioned earlier, means you’ll be far better prepared for the events over the horizon.

Long term strategy vs big win culture

If you’ve worked in an agency, you’ll know that incredible feeling when a major project pays off. The expensive video you created goes viral, a new report gets blanket coverage, a product launch brings in thousands of leads.

It’s a bit of a rush, but once the champagne corks have been chucked and you’re nursing a hangover at your desk the following day, it dawns on you that your next step isn’t entirely clear.

You’ve achieved what you wanted, but now you don’t know what to do with the results. Two weeks pass and it feels like a lifetime since launch day. Video views have tailed off, your report is forgotten, the leads are drying up while the ones you got aren’t converting.

Suddenly you wonder what was the point at all, while your client is starting to ask questions about returns on the huge investment they put into the work.

Big wins need to be part of a proper strategy, not the strategy. If you’re not building the foundations you’ll waste the opportunities you get from that hero piece of work.

Consider the following:

• What are you doing while you’re planning your massive project?
• Are the places you’re driving people to going to convert or get people coming back?
• Is your client even ready for a huge influx of attention, leads or traffic?
• Do you know what you’re doing next?

In other words, prepare for the win, and prep for the aftermath. Or consider that maybe the big win isn’t even a priority.

Do clients know their industry better than their agency?

In a general sense, the answer is yes. But there’s a caveat. There’s areas of their industry where their knowledge will be lacking. If it wasn’t, they probably wouldn’t have hired an agency in the first place.

They can even fall behind on customer knowledge if they take their eye off the ball.

As Breanne Morrison, Group Director of Paid Social at Publicis Media puts it, “If companies don’t get to know their customers, they could be worlds away in making a meaningful connection with them and driving that consideration.”

In other words, don’t assume you know your customers. They will change over time, as will their needs and interests, whether it’s relating to technology, expectations, or cost.

We can obviously learn a lot from existing customers, but relying solely on their data hides the whole picture, and can stop companies being reactive to changes in the market.

Agencies should be pushing for more market research, deeper understanding of customer behaviour in their industry, and a more proactive approach to watching for change.

A case in point

You’re the chief marketing officer of Greens And Things, a chain of vegan restaurants located around the country. Things are going well, veganism is popular and your menu is innovative, unique, and even attracts non-vegans. Nice work!

But then you start hearing about a competitor. They’ve got far fewer restaurants than you, but you’ve been hearing their name a lot. Next you hear they’ve got queues coming out their doors every single day, all day. The press pick it up, they’re getting a huge amount of attention, and now they’re aggressively opening new places very close to yours.

They’re on the attack and you’re on the backfoot. What happened? Essentially they started serving a brand new meat replacement, one that is healthy, delicious, and nearly indistinguishable from meat. Their CEO has even been on the television doing taste tests on daytime talk shows.

Essentially this upstart company were on the ball. Using a platform like Brandwatch Consumer Research, they created an audience including their own customers, and Greens And Things’ too. They monitored it for new trends and picked up a bunch of people discussing this new replacement, and started serving it. Then they targeted the audience with social ads to spread the word and get them in.

You, the CMO of Greens And Things now have to play catch up because you thought you knew the market and were resting on your laurels. You’ve learnt your lesson now. If only you had some clever agency onboard to keep you on your toes.

Client expectation education

Agency life can be hectic and fast-paced. Sometimes this is necessary for the work at hand, but in other situations, its a problem of an agency’s own making. In the latter case, this usually comes down to poor planning and a quick win culture, as we’ve already noted.

Clients, especially ones who have recently been buttered up by sales, are hungry for action and results, often expecting them to happen in a blink of an eye. While on occasion this can be sated, it won’t last long.

In 2020, it will be a time for agencies to take back some, uh, agency.

The client-agency relationship is always a hard one to get right, particularly when it comes to balance. It’s about understanding who is leading the way and, while the client might know their industry better, they’ve hired an agency for a reason.

Mel Carson, founder of Delightful Communications, sums up the problem:

“As an agency, we have clients who believe we should be boiling the ocean and trying to do all things for all people.”

Agencies have to know when to lead, particularly when a client’s expectations need a dose of realism and pragmatism. They need to lay down a simple message: long term beats short term.

Sustainable results need a sustainable strategy. Putting all your money into one big piece of content or a new website is an exciting experience, but will leave you dead in the water before long.

There needs to be considerations about how to keep momentum going, how to get the basics that everything is built on right, and how big spend activities can be wrung for every penny’s worth.

There’s no depth in data you don’t understand