In the 27 February - 12 March 2011 edition of Campaign Middle East Magazine, the magazine asked the question "Are Digital Agencies the new dinosaurs?" As media channels become ever-more integrated, it is increasingly difficult to define what a 'digital' agency is and whether they are still relevant. Campaign asked if we are entering a new stage of agency evolution."
My full response, which was published in their magazine, is detailed below:
Being a digital agency in the Middle East is not easy. We work in a fast-changing and highly competitive environment where every agency across the spectrum thinks that hiring two programmers and opening a “new media” division qualifies them as a digital agency.
However, simply adding an “I” or an E” to a logo does not a digital agency make. Traditional agencies have been trying to crack the digital agency model in the region since 1999, and very few have been able to make it work.
Advertisers are growing increasingly savvy, and are demanding far more than simple banner executions and Flash microsites from their communication partners.
Real digital delivery requires significant resources - from programmers and designers to information architects and digital strategists - and constant innovation in order to experiment, learn and offer relevant solutions to advertisers.
At Flip, we recognize that this innovation is essential to our continued growth and leadership, which is why we constantly invest in new trends and technologies before our clients do, so that we do not have to learn at their expense.
Most recently, the thousands of hours we invested in apps like Mumbaikar, Naviflix and Slide Reader have not made us rich overnight, but it puts us in the unique position of being able to show clients, and not just tell them, what we can deliver for them, and it’s always paid off for us in the long run.
Increasingly, we find ourselves again working with our partners at traditional agencies in order to help them deliver these innovations to their clients, because they recognize that no one is better placed to understand digital trends than people who eat, live and breathe them.
To paraphrase Mark Twain, the report of our death is an exaggeration. If anything, I think digital agencies have never been more relevant.
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