Other than anything written by Brian Morrissey, Adweek’s best offerings of late are guest editorials from people working in the salt mines.
Today Spyro Kourtis, president and CEO of the Hacker Group, says he doesn’t see the need to name a Digital Agency of the Year (R/GA again).
“Digital” is not a discipline or a profession the way brand marketing or direct marketing or public relations are. Those professions have given us a disciplined way to approach marketing communications. Digital is a tool for communicating. Digital is a technology. It’s a media channel. And digital marketers who operate in a silo are limited in their strategic value.
In another Adweek editorial running today, Ed Castillo, director of account planning at PHD, takes on another common theme.
Media fragmentation is a blessing for marketers. It allows us to address communities of mutual interest with messages tailored to their own needs, rituals and dispositions. In the past, we’ve tried to affect entire populations with generalized messages.
Naturally, these two opinion pieces share a common thread. Namely, that digital marketing is at the bottom of the scrum.
[COMMUNITY EXERCISE] Write your own answer to “Digital is ____________.” in our comments here.
Kourtis’article highlights that there is a fundamental difference between what digital and traditional advertising environments can provide and agencies and attitudes like Greenberg’s ‘Apps not Ads’ highlight this. But its a big shift and a very different approach – so Kourtis et. al. relegate digital to being a channel in which they can run some banners and if they gets really adventurous – get their ad agency to make some video – you know – a viral. And then PR it in AdAge. But to return to Greenberg’s position – I think there is something fundamental in this approach – the literal and figurative representations of brands: http://www.rmmlondon.com/archive/platform-ideas/