From Traditional To Digital To Integrated To Social To Instagram

The lack of distinctive agency brand positions has been a thorn in our industry paw for years. We’ve all heard the cobbler’s children’s shoes metaphor and the harangues from agency consultants telling us that despite our own branding skills, our sales propositions all sound alike.

Lately there has been a slow shift to agency USPs that has been brought on by the increase of communications channels. When there was only traditional media, we had traditional agencies. When digital arrived we had traditional, digital and integrated agencies. Then there was the birth of social media agencies and in the past couple of years or so we have seen the creation of new uber-focussed social agencies. One example is New York’s The Mobile Media Lab. Here is how they describe themselves:

The Mobile Media Lab is a creative agency that produces customized visual experiences with brands and their audiences on Instagram and other social media channels.

Smart. Why not ride the Instagram growth wave and play a role as expert in a fast changing Instagram environment given Facebook’s latest pronouncement on Instagram’s right to sell your images?

But wait, there’s more. The Mobile Media Lab dosen’t stop at Instagram, it delivers “Customized Visual Experiences.” I like the sound of this because it is, well different, and it allows The Mobile Media Lab to leverage growing marketer interest in cross-platform visual digital experiences like Instagram, Pinterest, Springpad and other brand new photo sharing ideas like DabKick which lets people share photos with friends across desktops and mobile phones in real time.

Due to its focus on Instagram and life in marketing’s visual fast-lane, The Mobile Media Lab has been able to quickly get some national press attention from Adweek and The New York Times in its article, “On Instagram, a Thriving Bazaar Taps a Big Market.”

The good news for the agency is that they have left their visual door open by saying that they will work on brand experiences on Instagram and other social media channels. The Mobile Media Lab can ride Instagram but are not boxed in should Facebook make any dramatic platform revisions.

I think that it’s good to be different and flexible.

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And, yes, on most days there is more here: @peterlevitan