Agency Evolved

To understand where I am coming from with this post, you need to read at least the first few paragraphs of this article in AdAge about traditional agencies trying to gain traction in the digital space: http://adage.com/smallagency/post?article_id=137057

This hits very close to home for us here at SSW. It's not that I disagree with Andy (who wrote the article), it's just that he makes too broad of a sweeping generalization about "traditional" agencies.

You could easily say (and many do), that our roots are "traditional". Just three years ago our work was dominated by television advertising. Every strategic plan started with research to find "the nugget" and every creative presentation started with a storyboard. It was a methodology and a business model that served many a client quite well.

But we've evolved. Evolved with consumers and with our clients.

We've completely changed our strategic planning vision to include truly understanding the consumer as they live their lives and we create brand experiences that intersect with them, on their terms. And our business has changed as a result.

We are not longer dominated by television advertising -- in fact our "work" is equally split along advertising, crm, and digital lines. Sure there are learning curves, like in anything. It's a creative process after all, and there are always ups and downs and ins and outs. True for anything that involves teams of people trying to solve complicated marketing challenges.

But the silo's are gone and we are doing incredible, integrated work. Work that is strategically sound and specifically constructed to solve the particular marketing challenge, with digital or otherwise.

So yes, there may still be "traditional" agencies out there still trying to move along the digital curve. It's a curve that we are all navigating, and will continue to navigate.

But in the meantime, consider us an Agency Evolved. We will always be evolving and I love it that way.

Hope this finds you well -- Jim.