Agency Search: Should Digital Be Split?

I’ve had many Marketers ask if I think it’s right to split out a Digital Agency assignment from a more traditional AOR assignment.

Depends on your business and how important the digital space is to your business.

Depends on how much BRAND plays a role in selling your offering.

Depends on how complex your digital needs are.

Depends on how your consumer/customers shop you.

Depends on how technically and creatively well equipped the full service firms are that you’re looking at.

Depends on how well they can provide you with solid analytics.

Depends on their history of playing well in the sandbox together.

So bottom line is it depends on a lot of things.  There is no one right answer.

So what does this mean for you?

Means you need to think about all the angles of what you need a digital firm to do AND take a close look at the full service firms you’re evaluating.  If I had my druthers, I would prefer to have one firm that could manage it all.  Less for me to worry about relative to management, brand integrity, and costs.  But not all Agencies are built alike, so make wise choices.