Let me just come right out and say it here at the top of the post: the vast majority of digital marketing or social media work coming out of the large agencies is mediocre at best.

Now, that’s not to say that any individual web site or Facebook page, or video, or flash game or iPhone app, etc.  is necessarily mediocre.  There are many award winning pieces out there I’m sure.  But when you look at the effectiveness of a balanced campaign on the whole–where online and offline compliment each other and work with each other–there are few examples that are really worth the $250-$450/hr price rates you are paying at those agencies.  Hell, I’d venture to say there are few campaigns out there worth $150/hr.

I’d also like to extend an olive branch out to the digital groups of those agencies: it’s not your fault.  From the colleagues I’ve met in the various groups, you are immensely talented.  And when I meet you at the next industry event, let me buy you a drink.  Because the tension and frustration of what you deal with on a daily basis, being relegated to the last few slides of the presentation, or the last 10% of the budget (only to be the first cut when there are ‘write offs’ to be dealt out for ‘client satisfaction’ and ‘over-servicing.’) and countless other battles you endure take their toll.

But the problem is that the ‘leaders’ haven’t figured it out yet, so the talent is mostly wasted.

Let’s look at it this way.  Have you had a Kolache?  They are fantastic for breakfast.  They are also a big trend (if you can call a breakfast food a trend after bacon has so dominated the foodscape pre-noon).  So imagine you are at the fancy hotel itching to order your $25 eggs benedict and $15 hash brown patty.  But you heard about this Kolache and you want to try it.  Now, there is this fantastic Czech bakery right across the street that has the best, authentic Kolaches in the city.  And they are $5.  But the hotel doesn’t want to see you and your 3 business partners leave to try one.  That’s lost revenue.  So they decide to make you one.  That way, they can still sell their $45 oatmeal bowls to your friends and keep all that revenue ‘in house.’  The hotel is a big name hotel with critically-acclaimed chefs, so you decide to stay and try their version of the Kolache and pay $25.  This is a win-win.  You don’t have to leave the comfort of the familiar name hotel, and the hotel gets to try and figure out how to make a Kolache on your dime.

Was it good?  I’m betting not.  I’m betting that it was mediocre at best.

But that is how digital is done at the big name agencies.  Don’t just take my word for it. B.L. Ochman just wrote about it in Advertising Age. It’s a very scary and accurate look into the sausage factory.  And it’s true.  I still remember being in very similar scenarios.  The pitch is tomorrow and somebody ‘upstairs’ wants ‘some digital’ in the presentation.  “Can you knock out a couple of slides we can ‘stick’ in the presentation?”

Better yet, in competing with the incumbent for one particular project, a compromise needed to be struck on who was going to do what part of the project.  My agency’s response?  “Our focus isn’t really digital, so why don’t you guys take that part?”

Let’s play a quick guessing game here.  What do you think happened when our digital team took the deck we were supposed to ‘stick in a couple of slides’ and actually put a bullet or two on EVERY other tactic to tie in digital across the entire campaign and make it look more integrated?

But enough about the process.

You may be saying that in today’s economy, no one has the room to take a chance.  I think the phrase is “nobody ever got fired for hiring IBM?”  So to protect your job, why not pay for mediocre.  And middle of the road is not necessarily a “waste of money,” as my blog post title here suggests.

Well, let’s look at why it is a waste of money.  If I were to add one more thing to B.L. Ochman’s post, it would be that when a client does buy off on slide 29, typically the work on that slide is relegated to junior agency folk who may be experienced in social media, but not as it pertains to actual PR, reputation or other business goals.  And what happens?  Well, look at Jennifer Leggio’s post last year on social media failures.  (there are plenty more of these–just Google ‘social media failure’).

Or, how about at a recent example: Nestle.

Now there is plenty already out there on Nestle.  But I will link you to this blog that interviewed Porter Novelli.  One of the takeaways from the Facebook debacle?  “One of the things Nestle did wrong was to use a junior position to respond to the comments, but they should have used a more experienced senior position to deal with the online attacks. ”

This is not all that uncommon, though.  The same arrogance or misunderstanding of the medium that causes Slide 29 to happen are the same people that don’t think highly enough of the medium to put skilled people on the project.  And as much as I disagree with a few points in this next blog (will be another post I’m sure), it still gives a great viewpoint of how agencies still think of the medium: 10 Ways digital agencies F up social media

So, I come back to my thesis statement.  The large traditional agencies do mediocre digital work at best, and overcharge you for it.  Perhaps it’s time to break out of your comfort zone and go try that Czech bakery across the street?  I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.  And at $5, what does it hurt?

If you are looking to try something new, here are some tips on how to choose an agency.

For further reading on Small Agencies vs. The Big Guys:
http://elasticthought.com/2008/09/a-case-for-small-agencies-part-1.html
http://elasticthought.com/2008/09/the-case-for-small-agencies—the-people.html
http://elasticthought.com/2008/09/the-case-for-small-agencies-part-3.html