Wishlist for the agency of the future

Just a quick pointer: Sapient sponsored a survey in the US asking marketers, what they want from their agencies in the future. Here is the top 10 list of things:

  1. A greater knowledge of digital space
  2. More use of “pull interactions”
  3. Leverage virtual communities
  4. Agency executives using the technology they are recommending
  5. Chief Digital Officers make agencies more appealing
  6. Web 2.0 and social media savvy
  7. Agencies that understand consumer behavior
  8. Demonstrate strategic thinking
  9. Branding and creative capabilities
  10. Ability to measure success

There is some more detail to these points at the sapient website.

10 new buzzwords you might like (but not need)

Nevermind the fact that there are sooo many marketing buzzwords out there already, enough for a prolonged bullshit olympics, behind this link are 10 more you most likely haven’t heard yet – but might well hear often in the future 🙂

Here are some examples:

2. Viruseful.
Viral marketing initiatives that are actually useful.
„Not only did Shave Everywhere make me laugh—I was able to configure and purchase my new electric razor online“

4. Emotrics
The analytical measurement of emotions.
„Yes—we’ve seen the metrics. But what about the Emotrics? We need to measure emotional engagement!“

6. Intercommunes
When people meet on the internet, form communities and eventually move into a commune together. For real.
„When I first started participating in social media, I didn’t leave the house. Now, I never have to leave the Intercommune.“

1 billion songs promo in 2008

Pepsi always seems to play the big numbers in their promos. A few years back, they had a lottery for 1 billion dollars with a monkey doing the final draw (so I heard).

Now they started a cooperation with Amazon to offer 1 billion songs in 2008. The details of the promo will be announced during the superbowl. That should be interesting, especially since after the superbowl, there isn’t even a whole year left to give away these mp3s. It means that they will have to give a way more than 3,000,000 songs per day (roughly calculated for 300 days).

Considering the fact that iTunes sold 1.5 billion songs in the last few years, this truly is a big number. And it should resultin in an inflation of the mp3 market, lowering the value of digital songs in general. Don’t you think?

4 types of communities

At the Church of the customer Blog, there is an approach of how to categorize communities, which I found quite interesting. The build a square, one axis being size, the other being devotion. Most communities can be aligned along these axes:

  • Little Devotion, little in size: Clique, like a small world. (Anyone who can invite me?)
  • Little in size, but high in devotion: Cult, like Maker’s Mark Ambassadors. (Never heard of them!)
  • Low in devotion but large in size: Network, like LinkedIn or Xing.
  • Large in size and high in devotion: Nation, like Netroots Nation. (Never heard of them either!)

So what does that tell us? Size and devotion are the two main things affecting any community. Question is, whether it is possible to increase both at the same time, or if it is better to focus on one at a time?

Links & News, 03.11.07