Understanding The Digital Marketing Agency

There is a push for Digital Marketing agencies to become full-service agencies.

If that isn’t the truth, there is another push where many full-service agencies – and the global networks that own them – are doing their very best to gobble up as many digital marketing agencies as they can. Regardless, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for brands to figure out what kind of digital marketing agency they need and which services can best suit them. Unfortunately, the research will tell you that brands want agencies to be better, cheaper and faster (don’t believe me, check out this news item from MediaPost: Advertisers Vent On Agencies) in a world where Chief Marketing Officers are battling to control the brands that they serve.

It’s a brave new marketing world, isn’t it?

Last week, one of the more fascinating pieces on the Digital Marketing agency landscape was published by the good people at Gartner (hat-tip to Jenn and Faris). The Magic Quadrant for Global Digital Marketing Agencies was released on October 16th, 2012 and this 16-page plus document (which is freely available, so grab it now while you can) offers some of the most interesting reading on the Digital Marketing agency landscape that I’ve seen in some time. It’s less about the content and much more about the players, their market position, the clients they work and how Gartner perceives them in terms of skill-sets and talent.

From the report…

"Today, the world’s largest digital marketing agencies are responding to demand from chief marketing officers (CMOs) who are eager to adopt the mobile and social opportunities that stem from a more robust data-driven environment. While many have a vision to help CMOs rethink the future of marketing, most deals that leverage social, mobile and big data often represent one-off-style engagements, illustrating that marketing executives are still learning and experimenting. The opportunity to execute the ultimate digital dream on a larger enterprise scale exists, but these deals are rare, given the intense competition around pursuits from CMOs who have the vision, propensity for risk — and, of course, budget."

If you are in the marketing, advertising and/or digital marketing space, I highly recommend you grab it and read it over the weekend. It is, without question, illuminating: Magic Quadrant for Digital Marketing Agencies.