Agencies

As social media becomes a more integral part of many company’s operations, there’s a battle being waged behind the scenes pitting public relations, digital and advertising agencies against each.

The prize they’re pursuing is the mandate to help companies create strategic and tactical social media plans and campaigns. The winner gets to play a key role, while the losers will be forced to play minor supporting roles. This battle is particularly interesting because for decades the three agencies happily co-existed within their own orbs. There was was cross-over but, in reality, there was little competition.

Social media, however, has changed the landscape. Rather than the three agencies having a gentile lunch, they have suddenly found themselves in the middle of a mixed martial arts contest for the big chunk of the social media pie.

The question is which agency is best suited to lead social media?

Is it PR agencies who know how to tell stories but, traditionally, have not done created or developed Web sites, widgets or applications? Is it ad agencies that put together great creative ideas for campaigns but have little experience with having conversations with consumers? Or it digital agencies, who can build great widgets but aren’t story tellers?

What makes the battle increasingly intriguing is how each kind of agency is beefing up their capabilities to transform themselves from one-trick ponies. PR agencies are adding creative and digital talent through hiring or acquisitions. Ad agencies are getting stronger when it comes to social media strategy and tactics, while digital agencies are building out their strategic and tactical operations.

At the same time, a growing number of companies are looking for one-stop social media shopping or, at least, they want one agency to take the lead, and then manage the other agencies in the ecosystem. By and large, companies are not looking to have multiple players at the table.

My take is that PR agencies are probably the best-suited to take the lead role in many situations. This is based on the beilef that PR agencies are story tellers, which is a crucial part of making social media thrive. Regardless of the service or platform being used, compelling stories have to be at the heart of any social media program.

PR agencies also have lots of experience in building relationships and communities. They are experienced in outreach and providing strategic and tactical counsel while listening and monitoring conversations happening about clients and the markets their clients operate in. And PR agencies have creative capabilities that involve putting together events, promotions and communications campaigns.

For many companies, having a PR agency take the social media lead makes a lot of sense, particularly if the PR agency has digital capabilities in-hour or through a trusted network of suppliers. It provides one-stop shopping.

This isn’t to suggest there aren’t advertising and digital agencies doing great work within social media, or that they won’t be picked to lead social media programs. But at the end of the day, PR agencies seem a more natural choice.

For more perspective on the roles that different agencies are playing within the social media landscape, check out this AdAge column.

Disclosure: I have a strategic relationship to provide social media strategic services to Media Profile, a PR agency.

At the meshmarketing conference last October, one of the panels was how social media was tearing down the silos between advertising, public relations and digital agencies. Instead of operating in their own realms with little overlap, these different agencies are increasingly finding themselves in direct competition due to social media.

PR agencies, for example, now need to offer social media service, as well as digital content to create campaigns. Advertising agencies need to offer digital to complement their creative efforts, while digital agencies have to provide social media consulting to complement their development work. As a result, we are starting to seeing acquisitions and internal expansion to deal with the growing demands of clients who want one-stop shopping.

In the wake of this activity, it’s interesting to see the creation of Powered, a new 70-person social media agency that was created by combining three different agencies: Crayon, Drillteam Marketing and StepChange Group.

According to AdAge, Powered was created to “compete with digital agencies, public relations shops and an emerging crop of specialists to occupy the lead role in helping brands deal with social media.”

So, the obvious question is whether a “one-trick” pony agency such as Powered can effectively compete with PR, digital and advertising agencies that are driving towards offering a broader portfolio of services, including social media.

My sense is that for a social media agency to be viable, it obviously needs to offer excellent strategic and tactical services. That said, there will be pressure to expand into other areas such as digital to serve clients who don’t want to deal with one agency for consulting and then another agency to create the digital collateral needed to support their social media campaigns.

If Powered becomes successful and establishes itself as a social media powerhouse, it would not be at all surprising to see it snapped up by a digital, advertising or PR agency looking to quickly expand its capabilities – something that would no doubt please Powered’s investor, Austin Ventures.

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