It has to be said that most advertising agencies are pretty good at market sensing: we imitate, adapt and evolve according to the latest trends in communications. For a long time, this process used to be easily manageable, because trends only affected the output of the advertising agency, not the business model. And even if they did, the pace at which they did it wasn’t unmanageable.
Things are different today, because now trends equals technology. This has made change much more difficult to source and to leverage. Today, being up-to-date with the latest technology trends isn’t enough to gain a competitive advantage. This has opened up a field for new types of agencies with different business models, often with specialising in a certain innovations.
A competitive advantage can only be temporary, and considering the accelerating pace of technological development, a niched communications agency at the edge of innovation will almost certainly become outdated at one point in time. This is because innovation requires thought leadership, which in turn requires investment into human capital (e.g. R&D).
Perhaps the most successful innovation strategy for an agency is to find the sweetspot between innovation and commercialisation?
August 6th, 2010 at 16:35
Well, I deem it imperative to first highlight that there’s a fundamental delineation that exists between creativity and innovation, as I’ve found that these two terms are often bandied around and used in lieu of each other. Creativity simply describes doing things in new/different/unconventional ways. Innovation on the other hand goes a step further to encapsulate evaluating a myriad of unconventional ideas/processes/approaches and then knowing which one to implement. Innovation is usually a topsy-turvy process that can be likened to tumbling ideas through a funnel to filter them.
The rise and rise of digital however has opened altogether new frontiers in marketing communications and there’s clearly room for a lot of innovation in this regard.
For advertising agencies, the future inevitably lies beyond print ads, TV spots and radio commercials.As highlighted in the post, innovation warrants thought leadership, and agencies who will survive into the future and continue to be reckoned with must prove themselves to be innovators-providers of creative business solutions that transcend advertising and having sound understanding of the clients brand, business, competition, category and consumer.
Tomi Ogunlesi. Strategy Planner, Bates Cosse, an affiliate of the Bates Worldwide Network