There was a time when the role of agencies was to connect clients with the right people and media outlets to help spread the word. Things were simpler back then. With work tools primarily comprising a book of contact details and venues, a communication professional was set for a long and prosperous career.
However, while processes were gradually evolving to embrace the new world, the ongoing digital evolution surpassed the pace at which practitioners were operating. This forced them, within a short time, to leap years into the future to catch up with the need to fully embrace new-age mediums and their true potential and learn enough to confidently guide clients on the relevance and utility of every possible tool.
Agencies today have adopted a new fundamental role that has them integrate with the machinations of each client to present them with new, omnichannel ideas, execution possibilities, estimated returns and, most importantly, projected outcomes, to preemptively plan future campaigns and activations.
What was previously deemed speculative has now been re-labelled as strategic, and what once may have been considered inconceivable in our industry is now definitely within reach.
Our field is one of constant change, and it is on us to keep up with it, no matter the pace or circumstance. Survival of the fittest? Maybe in other industries. In ours, it’s survival of the fastest and earliest adopter.