Is it a brave new world?

When you are in our line of work, you tend to do a lot of reading—and from quite diverse sources sometimes. A piece from the newsletter of a specialist media mergers and acquisitions organisation caught my eye this week. And not because it told me anything new; but because it gave a snapshot of the industry that showed how times have changed… a bit like that glance in the mirror first thing in the morning.

The article was about how to value a digital agency, as opposed to a traditional marketing agency, and that just asking the question made no sense in today’s market. Back in the Noughties, digital was the ‘shiny new bolt on’ and big network agencies were scrambling to acquire the skills, probably feeling like they’d been caught on the hop. By the middle of the decade, the article reports, there were more than 200 digital agencies acquired per quarter. A staggering number really. Today, no one acquires digital for the sake of digital.

What’s important, as much for client satisfaction as company valuation, is the agency’s ability to communicate in a digital society using whatever media—email, online, social or good old print—will be most effective at getting the message across to key audiences. At HN digital has become such an instinctive part of our repertoire it’s hard to remember a time when it wasn’t. Along the way we’ve learnt quite a lot: if you’re looking to improve your use of email, have a look at our new best-practice guide; or if you’ve got a digital project, give us a call.