The Impact of Crowdsourcing on Marketing Services

Introduction

You may think this crowdsourcing movement is like a big trencher, circling closer and closer as you seek to hold the fort of relevance and value to clients. 

You may indeed think that, but I believe you’re wrong. I really do think this movement is good, and here’s why. Even if we end up disagreeing on that point, it really doesn’t matter. The change is already underway, and resisting it makes as much sense as promising to hold an inner tube under water forever.

The Good that can come of it

First, it’s good (for now, anyway) because it’s affecting only a very small part of this industry. This equates to plenty of advance warning with minimal impact, sort of like the little tremor before the big plate-shifting earthquake. Don’t continue to ignore the signs, though, or the advance warning may not help. Right now all we have is a lot of whining, and that energy really ought to be spent on adapting. 

Second, it’s good because the movement will attract your worst clients with the smallest budgets and the least amount of sophistication. It’s a self-selecting trap with just the right poison in the elixir of “quick” and “cheap.” Frankly, bad clients are notoriously more disciplined than many in this industry. Who are the ones who keep compromising, muttering that the “fit” will be okay? Bad clients don’t reach up and use good agencies, but good agencies do sometimes reach down and pretend that the clients really are good ones. 

Third, it’s good because it will nudge the entire industry to start selling their thinking rather than their doing. If positioned well, all you need to do is observe, research, advise, and shape. Others can do the actual hand work. Do you really think an armless creative director couldn’t do a bang up job? 

Fourth, facing marginalization and price pressure is exactly what your clients are doing, and it informs the solutions they are seeking from you. Dealing with these same forces yourself will add a credibility and authenticity that clients will appreciate.

Specific Tactics to Employ in Reacting to Crowdsourcing

Here are some specific tactics to help you respond well to this movement, all with an eye on reversing your own personal marginalization in spite of where the industry is headed. Even though it’s too early for this to be having any ill effect on your business, it’s another signal in a long progression of them that there is change ahead. Here’s how you might approach this.

First, I think it would be safe to admit that you are going to need to adapt personally (versus your firm as an entity) if you want to avoid the slow marginalization of the industry itself. We may disagree with the pace of change, but I don’t believe we can disagree with the direction. At a minimum, that should prompt you to understand research and strategy at a deeper level than you do now. That might mean an intensive, compressed learning experience at a business school, reading the right books, attending a few seminars, teaming with an experienced provider so that you can learn, etc. Start pretending that the only tool you’re allowed to use when making recommendations to clients is an old typewriter: all you have is type, and every word counts. In other words, it’s not going to be enough to just hire the right people.

Second, as an individual you cannot hope to stem the tide. Even as an industry, we’ve shown very little solidarity in presenting a unified front. The solution is typically a compromise about what’s right for your client, for you, and for the industry. Each situation is complex and one-size-fits-all is ludicrous and certainly impractical. But, if you’re counting on reversing this trend, you’ll be quite unprepared when it changes without you. Assume it’s coming. In fact, the entire middle portion of marketing service providers is (eventually) at risk. The work will go to the lower priced volume providers and the higher priced strategy-driven providers. The middle class will largely disappear, which means you need to proactively move up or down to get ahead of this.

Third, we ought to avoid hypocritical perspectives on this issue. Responding to speculative creative requests, ignoring the financial implications of client demands that create scope creep, arguing for telecommuting, using stock photos, and providing unpaid internships all approach similar compromises that we have found ways to live with, conveniently or otherwise. Let’s not get high and mighty until we’ve really taken a look at how we’ve already responded to marginalization in the industry.

Fourth, there’s a difference between standing on principle or fearful posturing and reacting from anger. Pause for a second and consider your own reactions. I’m finding that some reactions are simply from a pent up anger and hurt at how their clients perceive and treat them. That’s not terribly productive.

Fifth, be careful about selective morality. It’s no more unethical to give away your work than to charge a lot of money for work that isn’t effective.

Finally

Finally, why is this happening? Ultimately, because prospective clients have learned that they can ask for it. Why can they? Because individuals and firms are often so poorly positioned that they are largely replaceable with a wide availability of substitutes, meaning that largely their expertise is the craft, not the craft repeatedly applied to similar circumstances. And expertise comes only from repeated application. Unfortunately, there’s such an insistence on variety and challenge that marketing firms often can’t effectively be irreplaceable experts, instead more closely approximating replaceable doers enchanted that the client will at least pay something.

If you’re open to more ideas about moving upstream, download the free position paper on our site called “Positioning Challenge: Combining Strategy and Execution.”