Media is Ever Evolving, but it’s Not Medicine. Maybe It Should Be!

When you need a physical, typically you start by seeing your family practitioner. A set of tests are scheduled and if an issue arises, you then seek a specialist. After further diagnosis, if it’s a serious issue, then finding the best team of experts can be truly lifesaving! Because of the entire journey and process, many medical facilities now have specialist of every type on staff and in one building and under one roof.

It’s not only convenient for the patient but helpful for all the doctors necessary to be working in unison and not in their own silos. In the past, too often one doctor would prescribe medicine for one condition only to be counter-productive for the patience’s other existing condition. Sound familiar? Happens every day and it can be fatal!

Unfortunately, the media industry has convinced many clients that the old medical model of individual silos or separate specialty firms is the best course of action, or maybe the clients have come up with prognosis on their own. (Never Web MD) Either way, it’s become the preferred method. Here’s where I call BOLDERDASH!

Like the medical industry, media agencies should actually be moving closer to the medical model of “under one roof”. Clients assume that you need a creative agency, a PR Firm, a traditional agency, a digital agency, a social agency and possible a mobile agency. Let’s not forget the marketing arm! Again, let me say Poppy Cock!

Now, why I understand the need for a few different agencies. For example, a separate creative agency, possibly a PR firm, and definitely a true “media only” agency. You don’t need a separate agency for each medium, because it’s not the firm that does the work and has the necessary expertise, it’s the people inside the firm. Too many firms have positioned themselves as specialists, handling only one type of task. But what happens when a client has multiple initiatives and media fronts colliding at the same time? Typically, unless there is a large internal company staff coordinating everything or one AOR spear heading the entire campaign on all fronts, communication suffers, and silos become taller.

I can’t count how many clients we have worked with that their initiatives are disjointed, their creative doesn’t fit the media and in the end very little resonates with anyone of their consumers. CMO’s who try to keep everything so close to the vest that no one is truly in on the project at hand.

I’m certainly not suggesting a “Jack of all Trades” agency. But it also doesn’t benefit a client to have disjointed communication, plan or creative. Many agencies have realized that carrying additional staff is costly, so they have convinced the clients that they are specialists and the clients have bought into that story.

But like a good medical staff each with their own expertise, a well-rounded, highly educated, and vetted staff can be just as critical to a company’s health as a team of good doctors are to a patient.

The truth is an agency is just like a hospital. Some are better than others. While every nurse and doctor have higher education, it doesn’t mean they are all equal in talent or knowledge. Some have better equipment and better personnel. When you’re sick where do you want to go? You want to go where they have the best talent, and team. You don’t hop from doctor to doctor and hospital to hospital. You want the best all under one roof! You pick the hospital recognized for having highly trained and personal professionals who are going to coordinate everything from pre-op to post-op, followed by everything else necessary to discharge you much healthier than when you were admitted.

Serious, media agencies are no different. They have specialists in every category of media who continue their education constantly to remain current on all media conditions, present and future. Clients are best served when everything from research to final execution is well planned and organized. When everyone on the team brings their expertise to the table and works in unison and jointly tackles the client’s problems and issues and helps them reach their goals.

Now take two aspirin, get some rest, and call me in the morning!