This is why you need a specialist social media marketing agency.

You do not have to change your marketing or advertising, but the world is changing regardless, and an effective social media marketing agency knows this. A 2014 study by Flurry (owned by Yahoo) found that 2 hours 57 minutes are now spent on a smartphone or tablet when compared with TV at 2 hours and 48 minutes.

Equally concerning for traditional advertisers is a Nielson report indicates 18-24 demographic in the US now only watch 18 hours of TV. With a year-over-year decline of 3 hours and 45 minutes per week. The demographic falling by 32%. With TV now reaching just 76% of 18-34-year-olds. The rest of the world will soon follow along in all demographics (my prediction).

iCharts

What does it mean to be a social media marketing agency in 2019? It means change, innovation, performance, speed, flexibility, scalability, and advertising that talks back :), and is measurable.

I will dissect each of the above points below explaining why a new generation of “marketing agencies” has been born. The old advertising - PR agency that you know or will soon disappear altogether.

✓ Change: The mobile phone has now become the 1st screen with users checking their smartphone on average 150 times a day. So this means if you cannot market to the mobile you cannot market anymore.

Consumer behaviour has changed, and the power base that broadcasters once held is diminishing. The consumer has more choice than ever about how they consume content, and any strategic marketing agency and informed brand knows that they must be marketing to the consumer where they are. Not where they thought they were, or want them to be.

The shift that has occurred started like this.

Facebook was originally only a platform for Harvard students. Then other colleges across the US and then the world joined in. From one University to now 2.27 billion monthly active users, and 1.5 billion daily active users. This is where your market, my market, and everyone's market have shifted.

✓ Innovation: Technology, data, people and platforms are now at the heart of modern-day advertising. Data removes doubt from the performance. Or to be put another way, a modern marketing agency uses data to measure advertising performance. They understand the market relevance and how to measure it. They understand audience targeting. The data tells you if your advertising is working.

As an example of this Facebook recently introduced a relevance score. This allows an advertising agency to understand if your advertising is “relevant.” Relevant to the audience you are targeting. Your advertising will receive a score between 1 and 10 and based on the score, you know if your targeting is working. The higher the score, the better your advertising agency is performing in targeting, content creation and making your advertising work.

Today's marketing agency needs to understand how these changes are affecting advertising performance. Keeping abreast of changes, allows the marketing agency to innovate quickly. In turn, providing measurable benefits to clients.

Today's marketing agency not only needs to be aware of current changes but impending ones. So their clients are well placed to receive the benefit.

The application of the information in today's digital world allows for rapid acceleration and growth. More precisely articulated by Salim Ismail, Mike Malone and Yuri van Geest study of Exponential Organisations (10x better, faster, and cheaper than yours) and the growth of the Unicorn. Companies achieve billion-dollar valuations in a condensed period of time. Examples would include Uber, Airbnb, & Slack

Applying information at scale, resulting in accelerated growth.

✓ Performance: Critical to the success of the modern-day advertising agency, is performance measurement. Traditionally measuring television, print or radio advertising has been subjective and lacks data. The modern marketing agency uses the platforms where the audience is, and where they are paying "attention." However, the performance of the content and advertising also provides a clear measurement capability.

The performance metrics are simple, did we achieve our goals based on the data?

A modern marketing agency understands the correlation between advertising and conversion.

✓ Speed: Today's marketing agency understands speed coupled with data (measurement) is a powerful tool. As an example, if the home loan interest rates at the Federal level are suddenly reduced. A home loan provider can then adjust their rates quickly. They communicate this to their competitor’s audience. They amplify the ads that are converting.

They acquire new clients all while the incumbent is considering options or is slow to move.

✓ Flexibility: The modern-day marketing agency understands that not all content is for all people. Targeting and relevance have replaced the traditional shotgun approach. Advertising must be created for each audience and sometimes subsets of this audience. Challenging for agencies who have come from a more traditional “campaign” background. The closer an agency can get to creating content that is personalised, the greater the performance and success of the advertising.

✓ Scalability: Today's marketing agency knows that by watching the data. Advertising opportunities are found to scale and amplify performing assets.

To put this another way if you knew your televising ad increased sales, you could take a local ad national within minutes. Of course, you cannot do this with television, but you can with social media advertising.

✓ Advertising that talks back: Some brands have trepidation around social media advertising, due to the nature of this last point. They have concerns that someone may say something negative or make a comment that impacts the brand. However, we have found that often the reverse is the case. A lot of our clients have had compliments made on their advertising, and we know how to amplify this.

Or another way to think about this is to imagine seeing your friend recommend a home loan, car, or any other business. You would certainly feel more secure in your purchasing decision if you were in the market. This is social proof, and far more powerful than a celebrity or other endorsements.

The above is only a brief insight into the modern-day advertising agency. For your brand to succeed in the changing media landscape:

✓ You need a marketing agency that knows where your market is.

✓ You need a marketing agency that measures performance.

✓ You need a marketing agency that understands the audience targeting.

✓ You need a marketing agency that knows how to amplify advertising assets

You need an advertising agency that knows Revenue - Cost = Profit and Profit = Growth

And if your brand is not growing, well I think you know the rest.