#Agency2.5 – Champions of Value
Posted Mar. 12, 2010 by Casey Flanagan
Filed under: Advertising, Branding, Ideas, Marketing, Planning / Research
Yesterday, I had the opportunity to attend a workshop – #Agency2.5 – in Chicago. It was sponsored by @4As and run by @TimWilliamsICG. And it was great. A full day of interesting statistics, fresh perspectives and conversation starters.
The #Agency2.5 workshop addressed how agencies are transforming for the future. One of the biggest themes of the day was the opportunity for brands to provide value. This is something that I believe to be at the crux of how we should be marketing. And, while this is by no means a new idea, there is a change afoot.
Value used to be provided post-purchase. Buy X to get Y. But smart brands are expediting that process. When “there’s an app for that” (digital or otherwise), brands can provide help and useful information pre-purchase rather than simply trying to persuade their consumers to buy, buy, buy.
It is a simple – but powerful – idea. We used to live in a time when consumers had a scarcity of choice and an abundance of time. That balance has shifted. A recent study from the University of California – San Diego found that Americans consume 34GB of information every day. Every day. It’s the very definition of information overload.
One way to get them to pay attention? Provide value. Done well, you might gain more than one time-starved customer. Provide the right value at the right time and you might just gain an advocate who gets the attention of their time-starved friends, fans and followers.
