brand alliances

As a communications agency that does a whole lot of things that could be called marketing (and always has, even when it wasn’t popular), I started thinking about changing the way we positioned ourselves. Should we be a “marketing” agency? With the advent of WOM and the launch of our Consumer Engagement Marketing division and the various ways in which we help our clients build their brands, not only through awareness but also via business development strategies, it just seemed a natural evolution. Until I started really thinking about it… In the IMC process, the agency lineup generally includes advertising, pr, digital, cp and media buying. Not marketing, so much. To re-position your company as a marketing firm might just make it difficult to pitch yourself.  Today, specializing might be the best thing to do. But specializing doesn’t mean you have to only do one thing, not really. If you are a communications agency you can add in business development when needed, or brand alliances, or even online viral marketing and content ideation. If you’re a media-buying agency you can come up with brand building platforms that reach well beyond what is considered your scope of work. Advertising agencies are definitely dipping down into digital in way they haven’t in the past. It’s all a big mix, which makes the case that a “marketing” agency could encompass all of these things and have a great place to live. But, I still think it just might be a case of all things to all people, but still a master of none…

Just a thought. We’re sticking with communications, albeit pr on steroids.
 

Just before the new year started our lifestyle communications agency was flooded with new business opportunities from some great brands, but then the market did it’s thing and a lot of the companies got cold feet and put their plans on hold. Thankfully, everything we had been working on held and even grew, but that’s another story. Bottom line, if we were going to grow in this economy it was time to up the ante—either with our pitch strategy or with our networking plans.

We were already taking basic public relations to another level by creating revenue generating brand alliances for our clients--often they make more money off our deals than we earn in fee(bad model?). We’ve always operated more as marketers than pr people (one reason why consumer products brands like us, the marketers think we generally know what we’re doing). I’ve always been enamored with helping our clients sell more products through creative pr plans geared to SELL PRODUCTS. So, what should we do better to become more marketable ourselves? Build our own platform. Something we can either sell to clients, or use as a vehicle to meet new brands (and showcase our smarts). So, we did it. We developed a platform that merges online WOM, offline WOM (sampling) and branded content (think promotional partnerships for film). And the model is working (GREAT meetings are happening).  If you need to get out there, do your own thing. Like the song says: “sisters are doing it for themselves?” This does not exclude the brothers…