Well, one could argue that today the separation of content creation from content amplification within social media is even more idiotic since content is only as good as how many people see it and paid advertising in social is dependent on quality content. As a result there's a huge potential and opportunity for businesses that operate outside the realms of traditional media buying houses to begin carving out new revenue streams.
Whereas traditionally there was a more linear approach and process as to how a brand's message was created, implemented and executed. In today’s ‘real-time’ world we’re starting to see a shift in the omnipresent force of the large media agencies to more dynamic companies across varying disciplines. Admittedly it’s a slowly evolving process, but one that is happening nonetheless and can be seen in recent transactions like Saatchi buying Outside Line and WPP buying AKQA.
One of the driving forces behind this is the notion that If the creative agency have worked hard to develop a potentially winning campaign, why, if they can procure the tools to do so, should the remainder of the advertising budget be partitioned to another company that may have had little contact with the creative team? With the correct technologies in place and understanding of the intricacies of the target audience, these traditionally non-media buying entities are able to transparently exhibit the success of a campaign by whatever metric the client deems suitable. This would then lead to stronger client relationships and have a trickle down effect on other accounts as knowledge and best practice are shared.
The recent Oreo Superbowl and Virgin Holidays creative have highlighted the potential of social to utilise time sensitive news stories but it’s a myth that all great content will naturally find the wider audience it deserves. Having access to budget in order to push content to a potentially new fanbase and instigate a tipping point will be more of a necessity as the social landscape evolves. The very nature of social media itself dictates that having the ability to quickly identify and benefit from trends without jumping through external hoops will be a perceived differential advantage to smaller, nimble agencies.
From another perspective, PR agencies tasked with communicating a brand's message could utilise software to ensure not just the increased visibility of a particular campaign through social networks, but insightful data to reinforce the agency capabilities and to benchmark for the future.
It will be interesting to see how things develop over the coming years as to whether brands who claim social is a key objective within their marketing mix start to look elsewhere for organisations who can fulfil their sometimes immediate needs.
Mike Oman is Business Development at