30 Sep Fail better and fail faster – a new breed of marketing agency?
We’ve compared the waterfall marketer and agile marketer in previous posts – specifically Agile marketing and ‘give it a go and see what happens’. We’ve been talking here about how that relates to the agency world and it came up in a conversation I had yesterday too. So I went back to the original post – Sex and the Agile Marketer – and asked myself how does this apply to the agency world? Are there fundamental differences between agencies and what are they?
If the waterfall agency does exist is this a valid description?
Focus is on fixed annual marketing plans
Repeats familiar programmes
Runs a few expensive programmes
Focuses on the size of the budget associated to an account
Creative over analytical
Sees things as predictable
Brand is rooted in strategy
Makes decisions based on data from media owners
Fights for maximum budget each year
Sees client supplier relationship as them and us
By comparison does this describe a different type of agency?
Builds monthly, weekly or even daily plans
Is always testing new programmes and media
Runs many low cost programmes and the successful ones get scaled up
Focuses on the results delivered on an account
Analytical over creative
Lives in an unpredictable world
Brand is rooted in customer experience
Invests mostly in measurable programmes
Justifies budget from bottom up based on objectives
Sees client supplier relationship as an extension of the internal team
Clearly different. Either end of the spectrum maybe but there definitely seems to be a new breed of agency that has a different mindset and approach to things. One where fail better and fail faster is entirely acceptable.