10 Questions For The Agency Executive

Many of the senior folks who work at a variety of agencies (design, advertising, PR,—take your pick) are actually digital immigrants vs. digital natives.  This means folks like myself (30-somethings) knew what life was like before the digital revolution.  Digital natives, however have grown up with digital technologies from birth—some have never seen a tape cassette.

In the "1.0" days of the internet for the true believers—it was unthinkable for someone on your team to have never made an online purchase, or performed a transaction online such as banking.  So, here's some food for thought:
Imagine it's the year 2000 and you ask the executive creative director from your agency—the same agency responsible for the re-design of your transactional site, if he/she purchases online regularly.  The answer surprises you when they say that although they like the idea of making a purchase online—they have security concerns and prefer to do their shopping in the real world.

Sounds silly I know.  Now fast-forward seven years.  What kinds of answers would you get if you asked these questions of your agency execs?

1. Do you read blogs?  Which ones?
2. Do you have a personal blog?  What's it about?
3. Do you participate in at least one social network?  Which one?
4. Have you ever uploaded a video online?  What did you use to do it?
5. What's your favorite search engine.  Why?
6. Have you ever used an online classified service like craigslist?
7. Besides making phone calls—how else do you use your mobile phone?
8. Have you ever registered a domain name?
9. Do you use social bookmarks or tagging?
10. Do you use a feed reader of some sort?  Which one?  Why?

Now think about these questions.  What are you looking for in the answers?  You are looking for empathy.  You are looking for a sense of understanding that only comes with experiencing something for yourself.  You are looking for honesty and authenticity.  And you are looking for credibility.  It's not important to have done everything in this list—but it's critical to have done SOME of it.

Nowadays it's near impossible to have a discussion around a brand, marketing, or design strategy without considering the latest wave of how people are using "digital".  Emerging technologies are nearly always part of the equation—and the equation shifts like the desert sands.  And digital isn't even an option—it's mandatory.   So the next time you are in a meeting, a brainstorm, or ideation session from the senior folks at your agency.  Think about questions like these.  How would they answer—and what would the answers tell you about what they really know?

Comments

[Scott Monty]

LOVE this approach. If anything, agency folks should be the advisors that are out there, experimenting with new media and bringing suggestions to marketers. How often we see it the other way around.

And a related question would be to ask: how much "R&D" budget do agencies typically allocate to discovering, testing and assessing new technologies? This is an area that cannot be left to chance any more, as the digital natives will soon have us learn.

[Graham Hill]

David

The questions perhaps tell you as much as the answers they elicit.

Your questions perhaps tell me that you largely are a denizen of the computer-based on-line world, not of the mobile telephone based on-line world.

The digital immigrants vs natives dichotomy applies increasingly to the mobile digital world too.

Graham Hill
Independent CRM Consultant
Interim CRM Manager

[Branislav Peric]

I consider myself part of the digital natives, I started my career in 1999 in the early days of Web 1.0.

I am always expecting from every single person in a meeting room to come up with a solid digital culture and understanding.

However, the latest wave of digital immigrants are also very important, since they would bring a very rational analysis, especially women. They know what digital is actually REALLY useful for since they are not looking at it for "the love of the tool" mais for the benefit one can get from it.

But i agree with you David, they should at least answer "yes" to some of the questions you listed.

[Jason Falls]

Great topic, of course. My reaction is to wonder if we really are in an era where if you're not plugged in to the digital world, you fall by the wayside. While I work in a mid-sized market (Louisville), I can tell you "yes" answers would be scarce among agency brass here. And the thought of them having their own blog? Absolutely laughable. Less than five percent (a guess) of middle managers like myself even have them here.

So since the people running the joint aren't very plugged in (email is about the extent of their web savvy), aren't we fooling ourselves a bit to think we're that far ahead of the game?

[David Armano]

Graham,

I'm responding to your comment via my mobile phone, maybe that says something about my denezenship. ;-) Ironically I don't think mobile is as much of an issue here. Most of the senior folks who I rub shoulders with have smartphones and use them fairly extensively. My one question about mobile was very broad, but I think the range of anwers you would get on that would be insightful.

Scott, I agree an issue with moth agencies is investing time and resources into emerging media and technologies. The agency model has the distinct challenge of keeping folks billable. Often times this conflicts with "R+D".

[Bob Warfield]

Why not take it another step? Agencies communicate their desire to have your business in all sorts of creative ways. When it comes time to interview the agencies, make a component of that interview happen online. Use a variety of digital media to ensure that you reach all the different learning styles out there:

http://smoothspan.wordpress.com/2007/08/29/web-20-personality-types/

This approach is not unlike one I've written about for interviewing new employee candidates:

http://smoothspan.wordpress.com/2007/09/05/writing-test-may-be-required-for-hiring-20-or-maybe-we-interview-with-blogs/

[Benjamin Koe]

I agree and understand what you're saying here, and I work in an agency. I believe as you've said we have to walk the talk (or pitch). But how far do you need to go to achieve that credibility you speak of? Maybe this is just something I see in Singapore, but embracing the digital media is something that will come quite naturally because we're forced to use it. The problem I see more often is agency folks not understanding or knowing the client. Say, if your client was the database vendor Oracle, how many of your executives on the team know how to administer an Oracle database? You talk about credibility in knowing the digital space, I say we're not credible until we know both the digital space and our clients inside out.

[Jenn O'Meara]

These are great questions for a client to ask an agency. I also raise the challenge of having a client answer these questions on their own.

I've had the misfortune to work with far too many internal communications/ marketing groups that were not only were not knowledgeable about interactive marketing tactics, but they weren't even willing to learn. And this wasn’t back in the late ‘90s when web marketing was a new entity, this was very recently.

These questions really need to be answered by all marketing communications/professionals.

[Ted Zahn]

These are great questions that could also serve as: 1) the fodder for a more "2.0" career bio, and 2) a critical list of questions digital marketers should ask when interviewing candidates. They're great conversation starters.

[phil gillman]

Great post DA.
I would agree with Jenn - MarComm folks on the corporate side need to be challenging themselves with these as well. They should also make a point of listening to the folks on their team that are "Natives" and recruiting more, both as employees and teachers/consultants.

[Daniel R]

Hi David,

Excellent post and it somewhat adds to Steve Rubel's Geek Marketer post:
http://www.micropersuasion.com/2007/09/the-geek-market.html

- Daniel

[Tim Brunelle]

David,

Don't be surprised if the executive in question just shrugs and says, "That's why I have you (or 'them')!" Totally agree with you on empathy. Yet, until it's required of them in some manner, I wouldn't expect to see much adoption. It takes a lot of time and work to fall in love with this stuff. http://rurl.org/8pd Of course, it's worth it.

Great post!

Tim

[Chris Brown]

This post really resonates with me. I remember 1997 when the Fortune 500 division I worked for was asking the question, "Should we have a web site?"

Seems laughable now!!
Chris

[Johnathan Hardesty]

Nice post.

What hurts the most is losing an RFP for a prospective client to an agency that can't answer or doesn't practice any of those yet.

That hurts because you know the client isn't getting service from someone that isn't continuing their education.

[Idris Mootee]

This is good as it explain many of the problems we have. Most senior folks in the agency world simply don'ttmore senior you go up the corporate ladder the less relevent those questions become as 99% of senior executives proabbaly fail this test. It is not their fault, they are too busy and this is not part of their culture. I forgot who said this " The most dangerous place to see the world is behind your desk". But with 2.0, it doesn'thave to be so, unless you chose to be.
Cheers Idris

[Graham Hill]

David

Nice one posting on your phone. But that wasn't quite what I meant. If I look around me at young people here at home in Europe, most of them have already deserted traditional media for the PC-based Internet. And an increasing number of them are deserting the PC for the mobile Internet in general and for mobile social networks in particular. This requires a whole new type of marketing for what is the most personal of personal devices.

This is the new mobile digital divide I had in mind.

Graham Hill

[Jon King]

Another aspect of this discussion is the next generation of "natives" might not recognize the connection between the icons and the function. This is applicable to not only visual cues but audio as well. Meaning, how much longer will the shutter-slap sound from our digital cameras make sense? How much longer will the manilla folder icon found on our laptop screen have any relevance? What's next that will work for all the generations using the technology?

[Hilton B]

Brilliant post. I work at a technology specialist agency in London and have experienced this ignorance both internally and amongst the very same clients who are driving these new innovations. Ironic?

It takes a brave (or cash-rich) agency to open a clothing label like Weiden Tokyo or create a Nike/Ipod hybrid shoe like RGA. The immediate ROI just isn't there. It also takes a brave client to acknowledge change should be the lifeblood of an organization. Idealistic perhaps but definitely a requirement for this crop of marketers.

We've a Finnish client who "lives" the mobile internet dream but the reason I'm posting this from my laptop is b/c their latest smart device (and 5,000 page manual) is so consumer unfriendly, I've little choice.

Consumer empathy has to be the bedrock of how companies design, build and market their products. Empathy & understanding is something agencies espouse but seldom deliver credibly in this new world. Both sides have a lot to live up to...and a long way to go.

More please...

[Daniela Trifone]

Nice post of yours, David, it's always a pleasure read this blog :)

To complete the profile of the person who's answering the test, I would add a couple of question to the list:
1 - What browser do you use? (tabbed YES/not tabbed NOOOO)
2 - What's your browser homepage? (search engine, news portal, online aggregator YES/Windows default NOOOO)
3 - Do you know the meaning of :D ?

I think that one of the most important aspect to investigate on is the multitasking attitude, do you have any suggestion about that?
Thank you very much :)

[dirk shaw]

Hey David,

Great post! I think this also pertains to leaders on the business side. If the leaders in the marketing roles answer no to 90% of these questions then the "digital natives" will have to spend more time educating and convincing rather than executing.

good stuff.. dirk