• by Tom Hespos , March 14, 2006

I've found that I can gauge how well the emerging media business is doing by looking at the last few new business phone calls that have come in. The more tactical the request, the better the marketplace is doing overall. I find that's a good barometer for the industry's health.

That is, the greater the demand for emerging media services, the more rushed clients tend to be. By the time they get around to placing a phone call to us, they've already fleshed out several potential avenues and they already have a few tactical ideas they would like us to take a look at.

Whereas in a down market or a stagnant new business environment, we get called on to help clients with their marketing strategy, in a hot market, folks are often calling us saying things like "we want to do blogs" or "we need search." The difficulty with these kinds of leads is that potential clients have already made some assumptions as far as their marketing strategy goes. Some of those assumptions might be things we're uncomfortable with, based on our experience.

We're most uncomfortable with clients steering us toward tactics because they're "cool" or because they happen to be the flavor of the month. It's very important that the agency have some perspective on the overall objectives of the effort, to make sure that the desired effect is achieved. Executing tactics sans strategy can be really frustrating for both client and agency, and many times doing so leads to a failed program. Even worse, that failed program ends up being the definitive test for that particular tactic. For instance, if you test skywriting on behalf of a client without a strategic framework or concrete goals and that program "fails" in the eyes of the client, you may never get to use skywriting again as a tactic, even in the context of a completely different program.

That's why it's so important that cooler heads prevail. I know many agency folk see a potential client knocking on their door with a pile of money, and the temptation is to take that money and say "sure, we can execute that for you." That's a great way to be seen as an executional partner only. It's also a great way to burn a client and turn them off to potentially viable tactical approaches because someone at the agency didn't say "Hang on a sec. Let's get a handle on the strategy first."

It's also important that clients understand that developing the strategic framework isn't something that's going to take four to six weeks every single time. When agencies say "strategy," often clients think of a time- and money-wasting venture that takes weeks to tell clients what they already know. In my experience, even an hour of speaking on the phone or in person with a potential client to get a brain dump on their business is time well spent. A reasonable marketing or media brief can then be crafted, by agency or client, and it helps to put that strategic framework in place.

Don't ignore strategy--even if the client wants you to. Or need I remind you of the mantra from the 2000-2002 period--"Online advertising doesn't work"--a notion that came in part from the dotcom boom and the prioritization of tactics over strategy that came with it.