Earlier on, I discussed the philosophy behind the marketing services agency of the future.

As a next step- here’s some food for though on the skill sets required to steer such a company.

I wrote this in two parts- featuring 6 new skill sets for an agency.

• Part 1- 3 skill sets discussed in Part 1 in iMedia connection article-
• Part 2 is here- the other 3 skill sets

The earlier three skill sets I proposed were those of a social scientist, a psychologist and a TransMedia Planner.

But that’s not all- there are more people that will be required to steer this boat. Take your picks.

Of course the future marketing agencies will be dominated with professionals with ‘digital mindsets’- so many of my recommendations will have that bias.

The Channel Specialists

First understand my usage of the difference between a ‘channel’ and ‘platform’-

If we take the example of search engines,

Channel= Search;

Platform= Google, Yahoo, Bing, Baidu, etc. (my version- not necessarily industry speak)

Who are they?

These are specialists in understanding how a channel works. Specifically for the digital medium, we need Channel specialists. It is no longer enough to have a generalist media planner- to start off with. We need channel specialists- and groom them into appreciating other channels and their interplay- but have a focus on one channel first.

So we will have a search channel specialist- keeping up with all the changes in the search engine space, to a social networking specialist- who takes care of those platforms.

We need guys to own the space- alongside appreciating other channels.

What are the marketing implications?

Better understanding of channels enable marketers to create specially suited campaigns for these platforms. Each of these platforms has an affinity audience that behave in a particular way on these platforms. Be where the customers are and get involved.

Why is this important now?

The fragmentation brought about by the digital media is too dispersed and too fast moving. Not only individual platforms (like Google) – but entire channels (Like the Search engine landscape). Then there are digital signages, and mobility based media channels.

If this is not enough, there is gong to be further fragmentation ahead and the impact will be both deep and wide.

The Numbers Champion

Who are they?

They are professionals- comfortable with numbers (Cheeky I know. But you get the idea). I would go a little far. I would say- marketing agencies could get such people from non advertising domains- like, say, investment banking analysts (of course we can’t to pay them in the industry that we are. Or wait a minute from 2009 onwards- maybe we can) or ‘stock market analysts’.

Statisticians would also do just fine. Great actually.

What are the marketing implications?

Marketing will be more science oriented. More about facts than gut feel. Till now, it has been 80% art and the rest is science. Now it will be more like 50-50 split. We would see- better trend mapping, response modeling and cross media impact measurement.

Of course this does not replace creativity or gut feel. But it could put them on steroids.

Why is this important now?

Again- with the advent of “digital” in the marketers arsenal- over the past few years- analytics and data and reporting and dashboards have become mainstream and not just buzzwords.

This will soon be used across media and not just digital media. As a matter of fact, analytics would start being used for cross media impact measurement.

Even within digital media- the importance never ceases- with the advent of ad exchanges- media agencies are becoming more arbitrage oriented (they already were arbitrage agencies to an extent). Soon enough- with agency exchanges- we will arbitrage at a more cut throat level.

Even if we forget arbitrage, we are increasingly looking to quantify the value of any action by the consumer- and that is best achievable by redefining data crunching away from sales orientation to action orientation.

The Trend Watcher:

Who are they?

Well- just like the trans media story planner- this is not a profile you will get by searching on the job sites. You will probably need to spot someone from within the agency or give a dual responsibility. Like the social scientist we talked about- or the existing account planners- etc. Best is to build a culture and a system in the company to spot and report trends.

What are the marketing implications?

Today, communications- and marketing need to be a little opportunistic. Trends (buzz) happens overnight- has a shorter life span- and goes up and comes down pretty much very fast. Like fireworks. I call it the Buzz Life Cycle.

marketing today needs to take a ride on the Buzz Life cycle- and get additional mileage.

Why is this important now?

Trends never had the momentum they have now. Memes are abound- in Twitter trends to Facebook News feeds to YouTube home page mentions to slideshare features.

With TV becoming interactive (social) and Newsprint becoming digitized- memes are going to spread like wildfire.

I am also tempted to add that the CEO of this agency would be a mix of Chanakya and Socrates.

Great business manager and a thinker combined.

Alongside- to string all of this together- the agency will also need a manager. Someone who could think across all of this, and could manage the skill sets while understanding the nuances of each.

Not your usual Account Director. This is Account Director- on Steroids. (well- in a good sort of way)

Think about it.

Shalabh