Nightmare or opportunity — Corona turns the business world upside down. Every company that still tried to dodge the digital transformation is now being forced to act. „Adapt, or die!“, as Darwin put it. About time for brands to radically reorganize their marketing approaches.
Sure, many companies reacted unusually fast in recent weeks. Established remote work, re-cut tv spots, shifted media budgets, started cost-saving programs till the crisis is over, etc.
So, all good, isn’t it?
Unfortunately: No, not at all. All those measures make sense in the short run, no doubt. However, their primary aim is to return to…
In 2020, even the biggest tech enthusiasts have to admit: the digital revolution is at a turning point. After years of endless euphoria, the techlash strikes back — and we have to figure out how to deal with it.
Sure, in the last 25 years alone new technologies have changed our lives on this planet beyond imagination. But the progress had some ugly side effects nobody expected — that lead to a great disillusionment in society and several industries in recent years.
- Social media has a huge trust problem — especially since the refusal of some platforms to take responsibility…
Marketing and „Digital“: It’s complicated (again). After all these years with exciting new technologies and communication channels, it feels like we are stuck in a vicious cycle that prevents us from making the next, really disruptive step towards the future.
I mean, look at the state of Digital 2018:
- Websites can be dynamic and interactive like never before — but development takes forever and companies innovate far to slow.
- Programmatic sounds nice — but where is the point when more and more ads are getting blocked anyway.
- There is an app for everything — but downloads are declining, notifications muted…
Sad, but true: it’s 2016 — and traditional advertisers and digital creatives still don’t get along. It’s like an eternal battle between ‘Mad man’ Don Draper and ‘Mr. Robot’ Elliot Anderson. Just that both are in the same team now and supposed to work together. After 10 agency years I have a theory, why these conflict exist — and how to fix the digital divide in agencies.
The digital divide in agencies
Everybody in the agency business knows the problem: ‘Traditional’ and ‘digital’ are two different worlds that still collide in 2016. Although all agency execs publicly pretend the opposite and claim to work “totally integrated” for years now.
Sorry, but that’s Bullshit. Big and small conflicts smoulder everywhere and refuse to dissolve. The lack of mutual understanding, the small subliminal remarks or the missing appreciation for everything the colleague from the other side does. “The traditional guys only want to do their movies and have no clue how the internet works.” versus “The digitalos always want their platform and sabotage our…
Alexander Glasneck
Digital strategy consultant from Berlin with a passion for tech, travel and writing about marketing in a post-digital world.
