The SoDA Report is 96
pages of interestingness.
Some highlights:
“Agencies are focusing
on delivering digital innovation. But…such a focus requires that the agency
challenge the status quo for brands. It also requires that they manage the
often uncomfortable process that a successful outcome requires.” – Guthrie
Dolin, Odopod
True innovation is risky, and
most brands don’t take risks. And, in fact, most agencies don’t take
risks. The solution is accounting for risk from the beginning of the relationship.
It would require a truthfully aggressive pitch and budget allocated for
risk/innovation.
“Our clients appreciate
that we invest our own resources in the same types of strategies we recommend
to them.” – Kenny Tomlin, Rockfish Labs
The Rockfish model is to
invest a portion of its resources to developing products for itself. Similar to
Anomaly, they make things and don’t only market things. I love his explanation
of how it is a selling point. How many smarter recommendations would agencies
make if they had to turn around and use the same strategies on their
babies/brands?
“The social web does an amazing job of sniffing out and calling out
lies in seconds…But true honesty is not just the absence of falsehoods. Brands
need to go a step further and be honest with themselves and their agencies
about the role they can play in their customers’ lives.” Philip Rackin, Magnani Caruso Dutton
“Agencies often banter
around the idea of a 360° offering for brands…this path has the tendency to
create a reactive environment in which big picture thinking and more innovative
ideas struggle to thrive.” – Guthrie Dolin, Odopod
A 360° offering creates buckets that
have to be filled before identifying a problem. Does every product need
branded content, etc? The brand has the same issue. As Philip mentions, the brand must be realistic about who they are.
Do consumers want to see your branded content, etc?
“RACKIN: You market a 300-year old luxury brand. How has
social changed the way you think about marketing?
HO: In this industry, there
will never be a substitute for face-to-face interactions and tastings. It is a
social and visceral product. Nothing is going to change that.” – Charles Ho,
Remy Martin
“Capitalize on human behavior and choices, for they will remain the
most static components of any marketing campaign regardless of any changes in
the emerging media environment. What matters when you are buying a cup of
coffee four years from now—whether you are paying with cash, a mobile device or
an NFC chip embedded in your thumb—will not change.” – Jesse Brightman,
AgencyNet
To steal the Gaping Void
line, “Technology changes. Humans don’t.” Digital experiences are becoming more and more desired, but for many products, they can never replace the physical experience.
The overall takeaways seem to be plan for
innovation but don’t promise it until you research and identity the problem.
Seems logical, but yet a lot of the report focused on how slow innovation has been.
I was at first kind of surprised to find a recruiting part of the report, but after
reading it, it made a lot of sense, and offered some explanations.
“An unfortunate reality is
that the very things that we rely on as indicators of high performance – hiring
the brightest students from the top business schools, using current jargon, and
employing the same brand pyramids and integrated marketing communications plans
– have over time created a marketing culture in which the process of marketing
beer is no different from marketing cereal or personal banking. We should
preserve the elements that keep us informed (i.e. data and years of collective
experience), while embracing innovative practices that require us to do what
feels wrong…One thing is certain: defying convention always results in
progress.” – Justin Cox, Pereira O’Dell
The biggest barrier to change may be ourselves. We want to protect
and validate what got us here: jargon, best practices, years of our lives, etc.
In a time when we are challenged to keep up with evolving consumers, the
capacity to learn is more valuable than time spent learning.
Anyways, a couple of last points of interestingness.
I’m surprised to
see NFC so low. I’m no expert on it but this kind of makes
me want to become one.
Lastly, I wish the
experience of the report allowed for commenting in a SoundCloud/Wiki style. It
would be great to put my thoughts next to the paragraphs, and have others
comment and share their own opinions.
