Strategy First, Technology Last

“As an industry, digital marketing has historically had a bias toward thinking about execution first — to such an extent that much of what passes for advertising and marketing online has no idea in it whatsoever.” Quote from Jim Nichols @ IMediaConnection.com.

“Focusing on platforms versus execution could cause you to miss the entire opportunity in front of you” Quote from Michael Burke @ IMediaConnection.com.

Strategy First, Technology Last: This has become a bit of a mantra here at JStokes in the digital back office.

Oftentimes when a client does want to try something new, rather than waiting for the opportunity to arise and coming up with the best tool for the job, they find a tool they like and try to make it work for a job they need done.  This is “technology first, strategy last” thinking – and is destined for failure.  You can’t fit a square peg in a round hole; but thanks to technology, there is so much flexibility that you can certainly take the peg (the job that needs to be done) and fashion a proper hole (the tool or technology) for a perfect fit.

I imagine it is a common issue that agencies with long-standing client relationships get used to just executing based on the clients demands and start to lose sight of the strategy, jumping quickly from client request straight to the execution.  In the digital division however, we commonly have the luxury of starting from scratch – so we start every project right; with a thorough and complete strategy.  Oftentimes this involves a lot of front-end time, so in these cases we generally charge for a discovery/definemenet phase where we are able to evaluate the goals and objectives and the client’s existing brand presence to come up with a strategy that is best suited for the job.

Though it may be hard at times to sell a client on this discovery phase, in reality it is the most important phase of all, because it allows the agency to develop an accurate estimate, anticipate any problems, and design a program that is a perfect fit – this is all time that would have instead been wasted in sporadic phases of the project, leading to money spent on time that was poorly managed, and resulting in not only a more expensive project, but a less effective end result – leaving noone happy.

So cliche as it may be – I will reiterate the words spoken by the boys at iMediaConnection (though these are really my boss’ words): Strategy First, Technology Last.