A Revolutionary Time for Ad Agency New Business

History is in the making with the socialization of media and information. This is our Industrial Revolution.

A Communications Revolution.

This revolution is already impacting ad agency new business practices. There is definitely a revolution taking place in the way agency new business is acquired. The new business paradigm shift that is taking place requires agencies to position themselves where they can be found by their prospective clients. This will require the use and greater dependence upon social media and new media tools.

Agencies must practice what they preach and participate in the use  of these tools for themselves to have credibility. They also will be forced to identify their best target audience and be positioned as having the kind of expertise and leadership that makes them irresistibly appealing.

In this new era of agency new business prospective clients will actually let you know when they are ready to engage by initiating the call. And when they call, the conversation is much further down the road. They are ready to do business. It skips the dating process.

In any revolution you have those that are sitting on the sidelines waiting to see what is going to happen. You have those that are followers. But then you have those thought provoking leaders out in front of us all. Brian Solis, Principal of FutureWork, an award winning PR and New Media agency is one of those emerging new leaders. Encouraging his industry to arise to the challenges of this new era. Brian recently wrote,

“Media is experiencing a textbook Darwinian definition of survival of the fittest … Media will re-emerge as a more dynamic, nimble, and innovative medium.

In the era of Socialized Media, relationships are the new currency and participation and collaboration are emerging as the new information exchange.

Mainstay brands will persevere, but the cost of their education to learn how to compete for the future will be great. Some will wait until it’s too late only to awaken to a daunting challenge of creating and earning presence and relevance in a new economy.

Times are definitely changing and the mood of a large number of small and midsize agencies is somberness instead of an excitement for this new media revolution. They haven’t kept up with the changes and find themselves behind in by a lack of knowledge of social media and how to use it correctly for themselves and for their clients.

My encouragement is to get involved now. Experience it for yourself to know the many great opportunities it provides. Learn the use of new media to engage your prospective client community. It takes time and effort to have a working understanding of this new technology, but you will be amazed at how quickly it will provide benefits to your agency and allow you to utilize these new tools for your clients. Experience truly is the best teacher.

The cost of your education is going to be great but if you don’t invest in your education now it will be costlier later.

About Michael Gass

Consultant | Trainer | Author | Speaker

Since 2007, he has been pioneering the use of social media, inbound and content marketing strategies specifically for agency new business.

He is the founder of Fuel Lines Business Development, LLC, a firm which provides business development training and consulting services to advertising, digital, media and PR agencies.

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