Owen Hannay, chairman and CEO of Dallas agency Slingshot, suggests in Adweek that clients ought to ask five tough questions of agencies proposing to handle both traditional ad duties and digital marketing.
1. Is the agency team that leads brand strategy as adept and knowledgeable about the digital space as it is the traditional space? (And vice versa.)
2. Where will the work be done?
3. What percentage of the agency’s business is online versus offline?
4. What is the agency’s process?
5. How highly respected is technology within the agency organization?
If the answers to these questions are satisfactory, then you should be congratulated: You’ve found an agency uniquely prepared to help you develop sound, 21st-century strategies for your business and execute against them flawlessly in the digital and traditional realm. You’ve found the agency of the future.
I can’t say for sure, but it sounds like Hannay doesn’t believe that too many of these “uniquely prepared” “agencies of the future” presently exist.
