• looking for an Ektron 8 freelancer / contractor. if you are or know of one let me know ASAP please. Thanks in advance. #ektron #ektron8 #

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Updated for a new set of stats, but still as good as it’s always been.

image by Jeremy Brooks on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremybrooks/

When I worked in an integrated environment I thought all the digital marketing on a campaign should come to my department.  That’s not because I was greedy (although I was of course – we all have targets!) or that I was naive.  I just believed that we were best placed to handle the digital side of an integrated campaign that we were leading.  It hardly ever happened and often it was given to a pure play digital agency who were on the roster for digital, much to my chagrin.

So, now I work in a pure play digital agency.  And guess what?  Now I think all the digital on a client should come to us and that the integrated agency isn’t best placed to do the digital because they don’t understand the medium fully.  And, once again, this isn’t happening and integrated agencies are stepping in and taking bits and bobs here and there, more on some clients, less on others.

OK, so the grass is always greener and I am really hungry when it comes to clients and potential work – but we always knew that!

But, off the back of this something else is happening.  And it’s in relation to Social Media Marketing as opposed to web design+build or campaign based digital activity in traditional digital channels.

And what’s interesting about Social Media Marketing is that not only do we as a pure play have to contend with an integrated agency but more often than not we have to work with/alongside/around a PR agency who are now more and more frequently getting involved.

Now I don’t think this is the same thing as with the pure/integrated angle – not entirely anyway.

It’s more of the fact that I think clients seem to interpret Social Media as more inline with PR than it is with marketing.  There’s a lot of content creation, which PR agencies are very good at.  I think this is what the issue is. PR agencies seem to just be viewed by clients as being better at content creation and dealing with a high-risk situation that needs quick responses and turn arounds than an agency of either a pure or digital nature can do.

But does this mean PR agencies are the best ones to actually deal with this space? Well, that depends.  I personally think that some PR agencies are a bit too old-fashioned to deal with the true intricacies of the social space and tend to just be too formal, too old-world PR in an environment that really doesn’t suit it.

But new PR agencies, and I think this will happen more and more as their nature changes in the ways that ad agencies have had to adapt in the past decade or so, makes PR agencies, or rather forces them, to adapt or die.  I actually think it’s probably a very exciting time to be working in PR – and believe me that’s something I didn’t think I’d ever say!

There are some amazing agencies out there that seem to bridge the gap between PR and social and ad and marketing and pure and integrated.  The one name that immediately springs to mind is We Are Social who call themselves a “conversation agency”.  I’ve got a lot of respect for this agency, especially after seeing them speak at events in the past where they just seem to “get it”.  Maybe this is what PR agencies need to become?

Well, I don’t know and I am sure I’m not best placed to answer either.

I do know I get a little bit “annoyed” when I hear that i’ve lost out to another agency on any piece of work, and more and more recently i’ve been hearing “we’ve given this to the PR agency”.  Especially as someone who loves his social networks and media.  But, you can’t win it all and maybe we aren’t best placed?  Who knows – and I’m not convinced yet.

But I do know it’s intersting and, for me, social is the new battle ground where the old versus new agencies are fighting it out.

Intergrated versus pure play? Who cared – that’s so last year!

Howard

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• Hey @netmag! We never knew you cared! http://www.adventuresdm.co.uk/archives/2010/02/the-highest-form-of-flattery.html #

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Spooky!

Hey .Net magazine! We here never knew you cared so much for our humble, little, not updated all that often nowadays, blog.

But then we go and see this cover of .Net magazine and we’re totally flattered.  Seriously, thanks for the tip of the hat on the cover design

And the cheque is in the post right?

Cheers!

• RT Marketeers plan 20% cut to DM and divert funds into soc-med marketing says Alterian research http://tinyurl.com/yh5cekp #socialmedia #sm2 #

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• updated blog post: How (NOT!) to engage a blogger audience. http://tinyurl.com/ydozrn4 whatcha know! they are a real person! #

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• RT anyone know if poss to write a plugin effect for MSN messenger? to alter the image or do face recog? #msnmessenger (via @Howard_Scott) #

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Find your nearest pint of the strong stuff with this AR app for iPhone

Augmented Reality apps are obviously popping up left, right and centre, and I’m yet to truly see if people actually use them and they’re more than our industry beating itself off yet again over a new technology – and I know, i’ve posted a lot about them previously and I do like them a lot myself – maybe I am just envious as I’ve not persuaded a client yet to take up the AR challenge

Anyway, latest brand on the scene is your favourite male binge drink for the discerning “Beer Connoisseur” (watch the vid and you’ll get that) Stella Artois with it’s app allowing you to directly find the nearest bar that sells Stella.  Surely over here in the UK it’s a no brainer anyway as most pubs seem to serve it and, I am guessing from a UK point-of-view if they don’t you’ll happily switch over to Kronenbourg at the drop of a hat.  But in the US it’s a different thing, and I know from personal experience with my good mate Bill over at Hot Topic that Stella doesn’t have the wife beater image that it so desperately wants to shift but can’t over here in the UK.  Plus, it’s a major import so it’s not in every pub unlike the usual buds and MGD etc…

Nice looking app, good user interface, but how many of us are going to be able to walk in a straight line down the street, let alone carry an AR iPhone for directions, after the first six pints of the stuff?

Howard

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