Next Generation of Marketing Services Agencies 1 of 2: Pillars and Barriers

The business environment for ‘traditional’ agencies is changing … radically … and overnight. What is causing this ‘plague’ of Biblical proportions throughout the agency world, and how can agencies overcome this situation by preparing for the next-generation of client expectations? Adam Needles discusses the key pillars for a next-generation agency, as well as some of the barriers they will face in part one of this two-part series.

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Top 20 Cross-channel Marketing Execution Platforms?

Adam Needles presents initial thoughts on a working list of leading cross-channel marketing execution management platforms. This piece is focused on (1) better identifying the state of this technology segment, (2) building out the list and (3) presenting insights into their strengths and weaknesses.

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Marketing Personalization 2.0

The whole point of marketing is to build a relationship between a customer and a brand through which both the customer and the company behind that brand derive benefit. It is a direct, one-on-one and mutual commercial exchange; for the customer, the brand is experienced at a very personal level. Yet so much of marketing practice and technology infrastructure seems to focus on de-personalizing and scaling marketing communication to as large of an un-segmented population as possible. Adam Needles examines how marketers can make both scale and personalization co-exist as hallmarks of every marketing program?

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Changing How You Think About Marketing to Your ‘Mobile’ Brand Community

Adam Needles opens a dialogue about marketing to increasingly ‘mobile’ brand communities. He focuses on four points as a starting place for marketers: (1) understanding brand communities; (2) placing brand communities at the center of our marketing strategies; (3) recognizing the challenges and opportunities inherent to mobile marketing; and (4) asking the right questions as we evolve our marketing programs to better target our mobile brand communities.

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Who’s Propelling Rumors … WSJ Claims “Marketers Cut Back on Digital Media”

Adam Needles comments on an article by WSJ reporter Emily Steel in which she claims that there is a coming demise in spending on digital and new-media initiatives by marketers in the US.

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