I Thought Leaders had a Clue? | Marketing Week

I’ve met a number of very senior thought leaders recently. Many of which have modelled the current social landscape in their minds, speculated on how human behaviour and interaction with brands will evolve over the coming decades.

They’ve even predicted how this will impact the humble agency, marketing department and sales functions in multinational organisations. But there is one thing they all have in common and it’s something they all seem to miss.

Delivery! Creative ideas, content generation and the very important evolution from insight to relevance to asset.

Amidst the negativity that surrounds our industry at the moment, and the conjecture on how the traditional agency model is broken, the all important thing that perhaps we need to remind ourselves of is that agencies actually make things happen.

We know how to create campaigns that get noticed, build brands and drive sales. We know how to use a piece of consumer insight, and turn it into a story that’s relevant and read. We know how to get press ads out the door, websites live on servers, and film onto TV.

Let it not be forgotten how valuable and varied these skills actually are. Because an accountant in a glass office, or a thought leader in a large consultancy may be able to predict when people will start buying e-books, but they have no idea how to write something they’ll actually read.