DMN3 Blog

By Keith Weiser
Founder & Managing Director, 5th Dimension

At a recent conference I was asked to present a short paper on how I see the direct marketing agency of 2015. The first point to hit me squarely between the eyes when preparing was, 2015 is only 42 months away. That was last month. Now it’s only 41. Lesson number one: the future is closer than you think!

My conclusions about the agencies of the future were based upon trends that I am currently observing in the South African market. I listed them under 5 P’s.

Positioning
Agencies are not immune from the fundamentals of marketing (e.g. positioning). In the future we shall talk less about direct marketing and more about either marketing direct or even integrated marketing.

Partnerships
With my trusty crystal ball at hand I see far more co-operation or even co-opetition. Agencies will need to learn how to collaborate more closley with Above the Line Agencies and agencies with other skills. There will also be closer connections between agencies and clients with more co-creation and even systems integration.

Performance
Who am I kidding? This one is happening right now. Agencies are being asked to produce more work, with better results from fewer people. It will be interesting to see how far we can push this one.

People
This is one of the biggies. We shall have more of those pesky Generation Y types to contend with. Finding quality people will remain a challenge which raises the need for more in-house training. Compliance Officers will be a must unless we all want to go to jail and the ratio between devs and creatives will swing heavily in favour of the former.

Payment
The way in which agencies are reimbursed will also change significantly. Strangely, I anticpate more relationships becoming retainer based because of the partner factor I alluded to above. However, at the same time, much of the income is becoming performance/results based. Personally, I view that as a positive rather than a negative.

Of course the one thing missing from my list is social media ... mainly because it doesn’t begin with a “P”. One of my co-speakers at the conference addresses this far more eloquently than I could ever hope to. She talked about  the mpact this will have on agency structures, job titles (e.g. Listening Officers) and where we will have to recruit in the future.

Editor's Note: This guest post by Keith Weiser, one of the world's leading authorities on direct marketing, is part of a new series of interviews and guest posts on the DMN3 Institute Blog by industry leaders in the field of marketing and advertising. All of the interviews can be read in "Profiles in Marketing Excellence" published by the DMN3 Institute. You can find the book here:www.profilesinmarketingexcellence.com

Kieth Weiser's Profile and Interview was published last week on this blog and you can see it here: