The disconnect between between Brands and Agencies

Futurelab is a marketing strategy consultancy with a focus on customer-centricity and innovation.   They help:

• Marketers to generate the highest possible return on their investments.
• Innovators to create meaning for the customer and the bottom line
• CEO’s to connect their strategy to what customers really want.

Now I have never worked with Futurelab, nor can I say with any authority whatsoever, that they are good at what they do.  But I was delighted when they emailed me with a nice report offer.

As a result of Futurelabs belief that something is “seriously broken in the land of marketing”, they have decided to encourage debate and thinking by producing and distributing two reports.

The reports analyse the disconnect that currently exists between brands and the agencies that service them – with the aim to encourage a global conversation on the renaissance of marketing as a profession that drives profit, innovation and customer-centricity.

Here is what they cover;

• In Reconsidering the Advertising Industry they take the agency perspective, and compare the internal workings of agencies to what their clients need.  They offer tactical suggestions and structural recommendations that allow agency executives to better equip their organisation for a challenging future.
• In Bridging the Brand Divide they look at the same data from a client perspective; reviewing what brands are looking for and what they feel agencies are not delivering.

For each disconnect (between Brands and Agencies) they offer suggestions and tips brand leaders can apply to get their agencies to better deliver what they need.

Great stuff.

Innovation: Indexed

Jessica Hagy has an awesome site. It’s a little project, “that lets her make fun of some things and sense of others.”

This grabbed my attention, and there is plenty more like it.

Great stuff.

I think you should watch ‘we think’

Find your brand spam

I had an interesting email exchange with Seth Godin a few days ago – in response to this post.

During this brief exchange Seth wrote, “I hate email.”

It turns out one of my email replies went straight into his spam folder. And he felt awful a couple of days later, because having retrieved the item and having read my message, he knew he would have replied sooner – given the chance.

But Seth ‘hates email.’

Of course, in reality he might not. Seth hates ‘Spam’ and the effect it has had on his email use. And his reputation. So much so, that it might have made him say (and think) the wrong thing.

For B2b brands there is a lesson here. Someone somewhere might well be ‘hating’ your product or service due to something that you have no control of. The best B2b marketers will try their darn’dest to find the unrelated ‘Spam’ that messes or cloggs up their brand – and look to fix it.

As for email? It turns out the real Killer App (for productivity and collaboration) is actually Spam. What a shame. I am sure innovation pays a price.

What’s your favorite question?

Those who ask “why” are typically more holistic or whole-brained thinkers.

Those who ask “how” are typically more box thinkers.

And those who ask “why not” are typically the challenging thinkers.

And yet all types, of course, are equally valuable and equally required for innovation!

Great .pdf manifesto by Corinne Miller the Founder & Principal Consultant of InnovatingResults!

Making any money on your Island?

Agenda Setters 2007

Silicon.com has come up trumps with its Agenda Setters for 2007.  Take a look at the List and see who’s on it.  Alternatively take a peek at the break downs by Business Leaders,  Technologists, Entrepreneurs, and Media Movers.And for the real trend followers there is the Achievers 2000-07 trackback (which charts the top performers over the last 7 years) and a review of the Panel who was sitting in judgement.

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Extra Stuff from Silicon.com

The world’s 50 most innovative companies BusinessWeek

The world’s 100 most powerful women Forbes.com

Chron 500 – The San Francisco Bay Area’s top public companies San Francisco Chronicle

100 fastest growing tech companies Business 2.0