Yet having said that, a few weeks of scraping the far corners of the web for information on what the next big thing might be has left me with one overarching impression: Wow, my skill set is way out of date.

Of course, that’s to be expected. There are many different levels of being at the forefront of technology: There’s the leading edge, where you’re using the news most broadly supported technologies. There’s the cutting edge, where you’re working on bringing a new idea to a larger audience. And then there’s the bleeding edge, where you’re wantonly investigating every last thing that sounds like it might have impact, but you really cannot tell whether it’ll sink or swim (hence the term ‘bleeding’). As such, trying to remain on the bleeding edge is a dangerous and ultimately frustrating endeavor, because by the time you’ve built up the skills to properly explore an idea either your goal is outdated, your skills are outdated, or both.

As such, it is very rare to see an Agency truly on the Bleeding Edge. Between often unrealistic delivery restrictions and the need to keep everyone billable, it’s rare to see pure technological exploration. In most cases it’s easier and faster to use established tools and technologies because they are known and thus allow us to estimate a project to within a reasonable margin of error. This, by virtue of my definitions above, places agencies as no farther ahead than the leading edge, because by that time the tool makers have come through and made things as easy to generate as possible.

Seems legitimate, yes? Certainly. And yet through my own recent exposure to the technological trends and implementations, I can’t help but conclude that the next iteration of “Really Cool Marketing Apps” are going to be well beyond the technical skill set normal agencies have access to. Let’s take a look at some examples, shall we?

1. Amazon’s iPhone application uses sophisticated Image Recognition to detect what product you’re looking at. These methods and algorithms are by no means easy, and usually require someone who is extremely well versed in computer vision (A skill rarely found outside of academic environments). Who, at your agency, can do that?
2. QR Codes are prevalent in asia and are starting to make a dent in the US market for cell-phone based scanning. The QR Code standard uses Reed-Solomon error correction, which involves incredibly sophisticated algorithms that can support polynomial Galois theory. Do you have any experts in Computational Algebra at your agency? I thought not.
3. Augmented Reality involves the manipulation of 3D spacial geometries that requires more matrix algebra and vector calculus than most developers are ever exposed to. While authoring tools are certainly making headway in simplifying that (Adobe’s “Postcards In Space” support in Flash Player is one of them), there will always be a disconnect between what’s embedded into tools and what isn’t.

While we’ll definitely see smaller specialty shops rise up to address
complex demand like this, it will still mean a sharp rise in demand for talent that’s traditionally only found in academic environments. In short, if you’re the Technical Director in an agency, and your talent pool is full of Software Developers rather than Software Engineers, you should probably start partnering with your local University to make sure you can source them at a moment’s notice.

More practically speaking, it also means agency costs are going to rise, and that many smaller agencies will be left in the wake because they can neither convince their clients that they have the talent nor can they retain it if they do hire it. This really isn’t news- there are plenty of Brochureware agencies out there that got into the web market and have been floundering since. The big players can afford to take a dive on a project just for the portfolio piece, and will thus gain poaching and award rights.

And yet, there is a ridiculous business opportunity here: If you’re the first agency who can pull off an AR or mobile piece convincingly, and are willing to monetize the expertise (via consulting or whatever), suddenly you’ve got the industry cred of being on the cutting edge. In essence you become the tool creator, with all the benefits and recognition that comes with it.

Bad news like that is almost inevitably followed up by commiseration about how many hours they’ve had to work recently, how they’re constantly under pressure to put in more, or how their coworkers have had enough and have left for greener… or at the very least less stressful pastures. This in and of itself isn’t necessarily bad- we all understand the pressures of marketing and agency work, and a certain amount of dedication to the project deliverables are par for the course. Yet when weekly hours exceed 50 on a regular basis, you’re buying short term productivity by draining both current and future creativity of your talent. Speaking from experience, gradual burnout is still burnout, leaving long-term scars, and the tightening of client budgets and inevitable cannibalization of the RFP bid has resulted in even more frightening stories: Talented designers and developers are going on antidepressants because of their work load (source withheld).

When I heard that, my first response was outrage. My second was to cast the management of those agencies in the worst light possible, as either willfully ignorant or maliciously exploitative. My third was to do a quick mental inventory of all the openings at Resource just in case there was a way I can get them out of that hellhole. Regardless of those, I’m confident in stating this: Those agencies are going to fail.

Ur Doin it Rong

Your talent is your greatest asset. Designers, developers, strategists, information architects, analytics experts, effectively all the people who actually produce whatever deliverable you’ve agreed to are the guts of your operation, and without them you’re simply a self-style executive or sales guy more useful as a hot air balloon.

So lets assume that you’re said executive with a production team, and hard economic times and active competition from other agencies has forced you to cut timelines and reduce your RFP estimates. A few of your employees are forced to work a few extra hours while you’re busy trying to find more clients, but the pressure doesn’t let up, becomes systemic and suddenly you’ve built a culture that expects 100% lifestyle dedication. If this was intentional, shame on you. If it wasn’t, you’re going to need to take drastic measures to fix it.

Your Reputation Is At Stake

As talented SME’s in the digital space we are of course extremely active online, and have a vibrant community of our own. We keep in touch over twitter, email lists, websites, blog, professional networking groups and what have you, and news like “I had to work a 100 hour week last week” gets around quickly. So while your marketing personnel and senior leadership are busy worrying about how your company’s brand is projected to current and potential customers, that same brand is being systematically undermined and destroyed in the professional communities that represent your talent pool. One single negative report is enough to mark you as an agency to stay away from, and in tough economic times it’s going to be much easier to accidentally cause these. In short, you might look good to potential clients, but when you try to hire the talent for that project which will grow your agency to the next level, the community will laugh in your face.

Let me emphasize this: If you put more pressure on your talent, the stress will reduce their creativity and productivity in the short and long run, you’ll have to hire more, which will refuse your offers because you’re known in the community as someone who works your employees to the breaking point. End result: You’ll be unable to produce high quality work anymore, and instead will leave your client with a bad taste in their mouth as you under-deliver on your promises, ensuring little to no repeat business.

And that’s the crux, isn’t it? If the web has taught us anything, it’s that high quality work (shameless plug) is a better sales person than anyone you can hire, and if your HR policies, culture and project management are systematically draining and destroying the talent which produces such work, your agency is either on life support or is one payroll cycle away from being roadkill. All the sexy, high margin projects will go to those that have the talent to consistently produce it, and you’re left with those clients unable or unwilling to pay for it.

It’s simple economics. If your production talent is interested and engaged, you’ll see the product quality increase while efficiency increases as well. We’ve seen this with Toyota and American Airlines, and there’s plenty of evidence that fundamental truths like this easily translate to the agency world.

And while that’s all going on, community leaders like myself as well as your competition will be waiting in the wings, ready to poach your best and brightest at a moment’s notice. So wake up, face the music, and realize that your agency’s bottom line is only as happy as your employees.