Not all creative agencies want to be tech providers. The smart ones admit it.
Not all creative agencies want to be tech providers. The smart ones admit it.

By on in Agency Life & Leadership

Not all creative agencies want to be tech providers. The smart ones admit it.

Before digital marketing took over the universe, creative agencies could stake out the channels that suited them best. There were companies that did great print work. Others that focused on TV. And some lived solely for Sunday print inserts. Then digital agencies started to crop up. We lived side-by-side for a while, until we reached a point where ad agencies and marketing companies felt like they couldn’t compete without in-house digital.

This shift created a real challenge for marketing providers that’s gotten worse as digital has grown more complex. We’ve talked about technical debt in this blog before—it’s hard enough for a dedicated digital agency to stay out in front of the latest innovations. But if digital is just one part of your offering, it’s next to impossible to avoid falling behind.

Now marketing providers are revisiting the model and the smart ones are going a bit retro—sticking to what they know and love, and letting those of us who live in the digital realm make them look good. In fact, partnerships with creative agencies is probably FATFREE’s biggest growth area right now.

 

The risk of not knowing what you don’t know.

Best practices in digital change about every second or two, as do global requirements for data capture, opt-ins, on-site notices, disability compliance and more. And new tools and opportunities come along every day. It’s easy for a general agency to lag a bit. But being behind the curve can be costly in terms of competitive or reputational losses, and the actual costs to fix things later.

Even worse, no one wants to be caught out by a client—or a prospect in a pitch—suggesting you have capabilities you don’t have or that you can make something work that isn’t economically feasible (or feasible at all). If you get asked about Google Lighthouse in a meeting, you want someone next to you who’s actually played with it and knows their way around.


Perhaps the best reason to partner with a digital firm, however, is to take your creative to a new level online. We’ve had people come to us thinking they wanted to put their print ads or menus or TV spots online and we’ve responded with “What if?”

 

The advantage of fresh, nerd-immersed eyes.

Perhaps the best reason to partner with a digital firm, however, is to take your creative to a new level online. We’ve had people come to us thinking they wanted to put their print ads or brochures or menus or TV spots online and we’ve responded with “What if?” The results have been some crazy-engaging, viral, interactive experiences, all met with “We’d never have thought of that.”

When you live in digital 24 hours a day every day, you can’t help but see things in 4D.

Think you could benefit from a white-label digital partner who slides easily in and out of your teams? We love working with great people to bring creativity to life. Give us a shout.