Posted By
Brian Unflat on 08/25/2009
After rumors that have been floating around since June, Microsoft announced the sale of Razorfish to Publicis Groupe. Does this big announcement coming to a not-so-surprised digital community move traditional and digital agencies one step closer together or move them further apart? No one really knows what will happen to the digital powerhouse “Rasoir Poisson” once Publicis Groupe has firm hold on it, but rest assured the deal will certainly benefit Microsoft. Now that the ink has dried on the agreement and Razorfish media plans begin to roll out, you can bet there will be plenty of revenue thrown toward Microsoft online properties.
So who wins or benefits most from this marriage on the agency side? Having worked part of my career in once-independent and large publicly owned agencies, I'd say no one really one wins. The gap between digital and traditional agencies can only be bridged over time. This means the two need to converge through lessons learned, campaigns run, and painful wounds healed. To explain in more detail: traditional agencies are broadcast- and print-focused. Brand is their King. Digital agencies are user experience- and technology-focused. Content is their King. So how can the Brand King and the Content King coexist? Short answer: ... they can’t!
One of the two sides needs to assume the role of the Queen and be put on a pedestal, or the digital and brand roles need to be shared and swapped from time to time. The convergence of agency practices needs to happen through détente and fast. To successfully merge traditional and digital agencies, there must be a collaboration of the right and left sides of the brain. The historical problem for agencies has been the “Who’s wagging the tail?”conundrum. Does creative lead or does media? I believe both need to be in cahoots to actually bring a new media agency forward. New media and digital media need to be included in the creative process to provide a well-rounded campaign experience for all clients. Determining media before the creative strategy has been approved has always been a big mistake. Getting the media settled before the big idea is bought into usually puts great creative ideas in a stranglehold.
Luckily, many medium-sized agencies like White Horse are attuned to these past mistakes and now integrate creative and media to form a cohesive plan of attack for our clients. That’s right: the creative and media groups actually come together to do the right thing for clients. A collaborative media plan actually improves rich media interaction rates by allowing us to place media where it is most effective and reflective of the creative team’s vision. Using vendors like Eye Wonder, Atlas, and PointRoll has always been a good idea if getting interaction rates is the goal. If branding is your goal, then stick to print, TV, and the occasional 30K banner ad. Either way, a marriage of planning on the media side and concepting on the creative side will always make for a stronger Tra-digital (new term coined?) agency. I wish the Razorfish (RasoirPoisson) of old all the best and hope it can work well with a publishing-based establishment to their benefit. As I said, only time will tell.
Tags: media planning & buying, rich media advertising, display advertising, online brand development
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