Gord vs. Mike - Point, Counterpoint
Posted December 13th, 2007 at 12:58 pm by Aaron GoldmanGord Hotchkiss and Mike Margolin squared off in this morning's keynote on the topic of big agencies "getting" search…
Gord:
1. Search is 2% of all media budget. Big agencies aren't incented to "get" search.
2. To agencies, search is DR and should be relegated to a DR silo and judged on DR metrics.
3. Search is granular (lots of pushing little levers.) That's not what big agencies do best.
4. Agencies exist to persuade people to buy something when they weren't considering it. Search is "multiple choice" giving people a list of things to choose from when they're already in the consideration phase.
Mike:
1. The agencies that Gord and other search firms work with probably don't "get" search (which is why the client is using a search firm in the first place.) So Gord's outlook may be skewed by his experience. Many big agencies (such as RPA do get search.)
2. An agency's job is performance - period. It doesn't matter what channel. It will lose biz if they don't drive performance. So they have to get search.
3. There's a difference between search strategy and execution. Big agencies will (eventually) all have someone internally who gets search and can be an internal champion for search integration. That doesn't mean they have to execute the program. They can outsource that to a search firm or leverage a technology.
4. As search continues to grow both in budget and as the primary way to connect with consumers, big agencies will have to get search. They'll have no choice.
December 13th, 2007 at 9:44 pm
Good on ya Mike never trust someone with half a name. Agencies are not the bad guys in all this. We assess market conditions, client needs and make our recommendations accordingly. Just because we don't spend as much on search as a specialist search company (100%) doesn't mean its wrong. We offer a more complete understanding than any search specialist can. This entry should be titled 'do specialist search marketers understand the bigger marketing picture? I don't think so!'
December 26th, 2007 at 7:31 pm
If you're a search-only shop and your compensation is based on media spend, you are not going to give budget to display or an offline channel even if it's what's best for the client. Big Agencies with top-shelf search practices within them will move budget to whatever medium makes the most sense for the client. Still, Gord makes a good point that agencies often see Search as DR-only so it falls to those of us running Search at big agencies to broaden this perception and spread the Search gospel from within.