Building a new model for agencies and consultancies (en & cn) kevin lee 2011

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Building A New Model For Agencies And Consultancies In China And Beyond

KEVIN LEE MARCH 2011

Reinvention is a constant that all businesses and industries go through. Ad

agencies, media agencies, market research agencies and management

consultancies are currently going through one such reinvention, and a dramatic

one at that. These professional services help organizations interact and influence

the end individual. They exist and thrive in what I call the Insight Economy.

The future for these kinds of companies is not very clear. Industry and

organizational experimentation is happening in all areas. The successful new

professional service will be one that accurately understands the nature and needs

of the new industry environment.

The Pains of an Industry:

The digital disruption has made interacting with the individual exponentially

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more complex and nuanced. The plethora of new channels not only makes

reaching a segmentation more difficult, but traditional segmentations are

obsolete as individualized digital experiences are creating people with

multi-faceted, multi-layered and unique identity points.

Digital has lowered barriers of entry to many industries and professional

competition is on the rise in all domains. Tech companies are becoming media

agencies, management consultancies are becoming digital agencies, and digital

agencies are becoming traditional/creative agencies.

Competition is not only rising in the professional practices, but where it actually

counts too: the ability to influence. Digital has enabled each connected

individual to potentially be the king of their own domain, or the multiple domains

in their sphere of influence. The open stream of consciousness that now exists

means the work and influence offered by professional services is even more at

risk of being belittled and relegated to irrelevance.

The ever-evolving nature of Digital means everyone, including those traditionally

seen as “experts,” has fallen perpetually behind.

And so clients have lost confidence in the ability of these professional services to

provide a reliable and appropriate return on investment. If the professional

service’s influence on the end individual is diminished, if they don’t even know

what would influence the end individual, and if they may not even have the

capacity to learn what could influence the individual, why should clients pay?

What makes matters worse is that most professional services are still organized

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in large, lumbering, un-adaptive institutions that derive their revenues from

over-charging on services that are fast becoming obsolete themselves.

In other words,

It’s chaos out there

We’ve got our backs to the wall

And we don’t know what to do

So what is the most promising and versati le business model for the

agencies and consultancies in the Insight Economy?

Formation & Scale:

1) Be Lean & Tactical, Modular in Growth

Lets take a page out of the geopolitics strategy playbook. Traditional military

units are ineffective in engaging trans-border terrorist groups, but we’ve now

created tactical military cells specially equipped to handle specific needs and

objectives in specific circumstances in specific locales. Professional services need

to be reformed the same way. No longer can we operate with large, generalist

divisions. We need to live in small cells of tactical units; each designed to be the

expert on a specific purpose, in a specific environment, in a specific localization.

Only then can we be flexible and focused enough to stay on top of the learning

curve, and adapt to evolving situations. It’s also cost-effective. Operating a

smaller group means the unit can survive at a time when the work required

becomes more piecemeal while still requiring a high state of intensity.

Lean and focused doesn’t mean alone. Like terrorist cells or elite military units,

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professional services need to live in fluid integrated networks that work in tandem,

coordinated to achieve one objective. Different units of the same expertise should

be built in different localizations to master the nuances of the diverse

geographies. Professional services should drop in and out of different situations,

working with different partners, and solve different problems.

It’’s the only way to operate in this influentially-fractionalized environment.

2) Be Upward+Downward Scalable

Fast Company recently published a fantastic article about advertising, and in it

they described a company called Co, a 5-person consultancy that can draw

upon a network of 44 multi-disciplinary partner agencies in the event they take

on a project more than their 5-person team can handle. In this way they can

scale up and down to precisely fit the project size. In addition, they can invite the

right combination of talents together that fit the project scope.

Upwards+downwards scalability may not be the most job secure, but its more

sustainable than the status quo. Clients and the work require greater

customization. If you cannot offer the exact solution, a competing team will. The

industry can no longer afford or tolerate redundancies. Those that expected an

advertising or media job to mean a steady paycheck should wake up. The future

of this industry will look a lot more like the film-production industry, where

everyone lives project by project.

Such frequent scaling may pose problems for quality control, but this is the

challenge of the new professional service. Creating replicable guidelines,

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procedures and methodologies to ensure highly integrated collaboration from

Day 1 will be the mark of a successful company.

Scope:

3) Be Highly Specialized, Non - Integrated, and Positioned to Frame

the Question

AdAge published an article by TB Song, Ogilvy’s Greater China Chairman that

talks about the changing trends in China. Song states:

“Marketers often spend 10% of their budget to produce the average TV spot and

90% to blast it across mass media. In the coming years, budgets will look more

like those of movie studios –80% for production and 20% on promotion. The

stronger the content, the less one needs to spend on publicity.”

Indeed, today’s individual will only pay attention if there are nuanced,

resonating, and timely personal meanings and relationships involved. But in this

chaos its not only content production that will grow, the more important issue is

what the content production should be, and who it is for?

Song proposes that Ad Agency Planners will break away and form their own

niche practices. I agree with Song’s forecast. Successfully answering: “What

content production should be and who it is for?” requires long-term, immersed

specializations in categories/practices to develop the proper insights and trust.

As traditional segmentations give way to tribal rituals, secrets, and micro-social

interactions, the important question becomes which tribe, ritual, secret, and

interaction should the organization/brand be involved with. Only a highly

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specialized professional service has the chance to answer this question.

Specialists need to detach themselves from their present integrated service units

in order to focus on particular areas and find the greatest relevant value – that’s

what clients are really ready to pay for.

Unfortunately not all specialists –and by extension agencies– are created equal.

Planners are already positioned to capture high individual value because they

are helping make sense of the chaos, and helping to frame the question. By the

same logic specialized market researchers and management consultants may

have a similar value-added.

This leaves creatives in a particularly difficult position. In an age where one ‘Big

Idea’ has a harder and harder time convincing its value and ability to resonate,

creatives are at risk of becoming a commodity. The earlier mentioned Fast

Company article suggests that the way to capture higher value is for creative

strategists to evolve from story-tellers to story-builders, meaning they curate,

participate, and add to never-ending story-lines in co-creation with the end

individuals. This again would need to be highly specialized, as story-builders

need to be adept at maintaining and innovating intricate interactions that are

relevant to the cultural nuances of the particular community.

There are some services following de-integration that will be commoditized, and

have already begun so. Media buying, media metrics, and to a lesser extent

creative production are becoming more interchangeable and will become

generally support-services, because they don’t answer the main value question,

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“What content production should be and who is it for?”.

Those that will offer the highest value, and reap the greatest rewards, will be

those professional services that can de-integrate, and be highly specialized with

the ability to frame the question.

Value:

While the above formation, scale and scope sections deal with organizing

oneself for tomorrow’s industry, this value section is about defining and

defending a sustainable positioning.

4) Give Free Data -Points, Get Paid for Insights

A great blog article interviewing the founder of PSFK reveals the new nature of

information value-creation, and anyone in the business of information–

professional services, publishers, media–should pay attention. The small team at

PSFK navigates through an immense amount of information and data points at a

voracious speed. Acting as a media platform, they freely share and broadcast

the information they come across with the public. PSFK instead gets work and

makes its money consulting on concept development and trends. Their

value-added is not from the selection of information they broadcast, but from

linking disparate data points, synthesizing patterns into insights.

Why freely publish what you’re looking at? Shouldn’t keeping it secret give you

more advantage?

PSFK has embraced the new reality that information flows free, and the benefits

gained from free broadcast outweigh the loss of potential revenue from taxing

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that information access. Consider why you use Twitter. What benefits come from

freely tweeting and re-tweeting all those links? For one, you gain a following of

people who begin to associate you as a credible source for a specific kind of

information–sounds to me like the best kind of advertising you could hope for.

Perhaps more importantly, you build conversations and relationships with a

growing network of like-minded and equally amazing people. A network that

will elevate the quality of information you consume by in turn sharing with you

what they’re looking at. In this new insight economy, professional services are

only as good as their information community. The traditional model of market

research that ignores community immersion and commitment is dead. Give free

data-points. Build your information community. Get paid for deeply nuanced

insights.

5) Narrow -Casted Community Connectors

Your community is your long-term defendable competitive advantage because it

is one of the most difficult assets to build and copy. Ask any Web 2.0 platform

and they’ll attest to this. Communities are not just important for social media, but

as we’ve just discussed, for professional services as well. Once you have

immersed yourself with credibility and trust in a distinguishable community,

clients won’t just want to draw on your insights from that community, they’ll want

to connect to the community itself. And they’ll hire you to help them do it. This is

the professional service’s next value added beyond insight. This is the real

influence industry.

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As a community connector, a professional service will “narrowcast”: strategically

identifying and working with a small group of community leaders who influence

the influencers. Each company will narrowcast in the community they’re

immersed in. PSFK offers connection to high-level creative thinkers. Co,

narrowcasts from their extensive network of media, branding, technology and

other experts in North America. Victor & Spoils, another company mentioned in

the Fast Company article, crowd-sources creative production from their base of

operations in Boulder, Colorado. China Youthology, the company I help lead,

will explore connection opportunities between passionate organizations and the

China youth community.

Being a connector can produce powerful win-win opportunities, but can only be

achieved by first having credibility with the community. This credibility is rooted

in deep immersion, commitment, passion and membership.

Where could we see this new model of professional service enter

mainstream use?

It would have to be a place that: a) Clients are willing to try new things and are

thirsty for an edge. b) There is less dominance by conglomerate holding

companies. c) There is a sufficient supply of talented specialists. d) There is an

entrepreneurial spirit by those in the industry. e) There are growing communities

of interest.

I’d say that China has some challenges when it comes to growing the supply of

quality talented specialists, but this problem is already on its way to solving itself

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as more and more talent migrates to Asia in search for new opportunities. The

other hurdle for China are the clients. It is not that China’s domestic clients aren’t

willing to try something new, but the unsophistication, immaturity and general

lack of standards in the client-agency/consultancy relationship has in the past

made progress difficult. A lot of education, hand-holding, and culture-building

continues to be needed. But perhaps this is also China’s saving grace. With less

legacy impeding the breaking of convention, maybe China will have an easier

time embracing a new agency and consultancy model.

However, I can also see other regions being the first to champion this model. All

have their weaknesses and strengths, but all are in desperate need for change,

and a model–like this one–that can help solve their ills. I would also surmise that

the adoption of this model may arise by industry instead of geography. Ad

agencies and market research agencies are likely to be the first.

Some last thoughts:

With all this reinvention going on in agencies and consultancies, the onus is

really on clients. In the new insight economy marketers will not be able to rely on

a one-stop-shop to answer all their questions and do all their work. It won’t be

only a matter of assigning budgets and deliberating on pitches. While able to

help clients frame the right questions and connect highly nuanced strategies, new

agencies and consultancies will only be able to add value if the client is

sophisticated enough to know what kind of professional service they need, and

what kinds of value creation really matter to the organization.

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If you’re finding yourself in the insight economy, and feel the pains of the industry,

start your reinvention by first asking, What’s your specific community of

connection? How do you immerse to capture the right, relevant insights and build

to provide a unique, value-added professional service?

***** 为专业咨询服务机构在中国及更多地方

创建新模式 Kevin Lee

Translated by Ogilvy & Mather Advertising Beijing

所有的企业和行业都会经历不断重塑的过程。广告公司、媒体代理商、

市场研究公司和管理咨询公司们目前正在经历这种重塑，而且还是极

其巨大的。这些专业服务机构帮助组织与终端个体进行互动，并直接

影响他们。让这些专业服务机构生存并得以发展的环境也就是我所称

的“洞察力经济”。

可是对于这些类型的公司来说，未来并不是非常清晰。在行业及组织

机构内部进行的试验随处发生。因此作为一个成功的新型专业服务机

构，它将必须精确理解新行业环境的特性和需求。

行业之痛：

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数字化冲击使得与个体的互动变得格外复杂和微妙。新渠道过剩不仅

使触及一个细分群体变得更加困难，也使传统群体划分显得过时，因

为个性化数字体验为人们创造出多面，多层且独特的个性识别点。

数字化降低了许多行业的入门门槛而导致专业竞争在各个领域中加

剧。技术公司正在转变成媒体公司，管理咨询公司正在转变成数码公

司，而数码公司正在逐渐转变成一个传统或创意公司。

竞争不仅在专业实践中加剧，也同时体现在其实际展现的价值方面，

即它施加影响的能力。数字化使每个相互连接的个体有潜力成为他们

自己领域甚至其影响力所涉及的任意多个领域的领导者。如今开放的

意识流意味着专业服务机构提供的工作成果和影响力更有可能陷入

一种被轻视和甚至被归入不相干性的危机。

不断演变的数字化进程意味着每个人（也包括传统意义上被视为“专

家”的人）已经永久地落在后面。

因此，对于相信这些专业服务机构可以提供可靠且适当的投资回报的

能力，客户已经失去信心。如果专业服务机构对终端个体的影响力减

小，如果他们甚至不知道什么将影响终端个体，甚至如果他们可能根

本没有能力知道什么将影响终端个体，那么客户为什么要付钱呢？

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让事情更糟的是大多数专业服务机构依然是一些庞大的、动作迟缓和

适应能力差的组织，从服务要价过高中获得赢利，这种形式本身也在

使他们迅速折旧。

换句话说，

一切都很混乱，

我们已经没有退路，

而且我们不知道怎么做。

那么，在洞察力经济中，对于专业服务机构来说，什么是最具

前景和多元的业务模式呢？

模式和拓展：

1）在精益化、战术化、模块化中成长

我们借鉴一下地缘政治战略剧本。传统军事部队在与跨境恐怖组织交

战时不起作用，但我们现在创建了在特定场所的特定环境中为处理特

定需求和目标而进行专门装备的战术军事小组。专业服务机构需要以

同样方式进行改革。我们不再能单纯运作大型的大众化的分支机构。

我们需要生活在小型的战略单元中，每个小型单元都是某个特定场所，

特定环境中某个特定用途的专家。只有这样我们才能够足以灵活且聚

焦地处于学习曲线的顶端，并不断适应演变的形势。这同样也具有成

本效益。运营较小规模的团队意味着单位能够在高强度工作，且所需

工作任务变得更加碎片化时仍能生存下来。

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精益和专注并不意味着孤军作战。与恐怖集团或精英武装部队一样，

专业服务机构需要生活在一个流动的整合网络之中，这种整合网络强

调协力工作，通过合作实现同一个目标。相同专业的不同单位应该建

立于不同地方，从而更好掌握不同地域的细微差别。专业服务机构应

该进入或退出不同的形势，与不同伙伴合作，并解决不同的问题。

这是在这个影响力片段化的环境中运营的唯一方法。

2）可大可小的规模控制方式

《Fast Company》最近刊登了一篇很棒的关于广告业的文章。这篇

文章中，它描述了一家名为“Co”的公司。这是一家只 5个人组成的咨

询公司，在他们承担 5 人团队无法操作的项目时他们便会启用由 44

家在多方面均训练有素的合作商构成的网络。这样，他们能够适时扩

大或减小团队人员数量，从而精确地适应项目的规模。另外，他们也

因此可以获得适当的人才配备，以适合项目需求。

这种可大可小规模控制方式，可能并不能带来最强的职业安全感，但

至少比现状更具可持续性。客户及工作成果要求更加定制化。如果你

不能提供准确的解决方案，那就把机会给了你的竞争对手。这个行业

已经不再负担得起并容忍冗余。那些指望广告或媒体工作意味着稳定

薪水的人应该醒醒了。这个行业的未来将看起来更像电影制作行业，

每个人都靠一个个项目活着。

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此类频繁的规模变化可能会引起质量控制问题，但这是对新型专业服

务机构的挑战。创建可复制的指导方针、程序和方法，确保从第一天

起就高度整合的协作，这将是一家成功公司的标志。

范围：

3）非常专门化，非整合，能够提出问题

《广告时代》刊登了奥美大中华区董事长宋秩铭（TB Song）的一篇

有关讲述中国变化趋势的文章。宋秩铭在文章中写到：

“市场营销人员通常将 10%的预算用于制作一支普通的电视广告，然

后将 90%的预算用于将其投放在大众媒体上。在未来几年中，预算

支出将看起来更像一个电影制片公司：80%用于制作，20%用于推广。

内容越强，在宣传方面需要的开支越少。”

实际上， 如今的个体只会关注那些涉及到细微差别的、能引起共鸣

的和体现及时个人意义和人际关系的事物。在这个混乱的现状中，不

仅在于要创造内容，更重要的问题是创造怎样的内容，为谁创造？

宋秩铭提议，将广告公司策划人员从组织架构中分离并构建他们自己

的小众业务。我赞同宋秩铭的预测。要成功地回答“创造怎样的内容，

为谁创造”需要一个长期在品类/实践中进行融入式专业化的过程，从

而形成恰当洞察和信任。随着传统细分开始为社群仪式、社群秘密和

微观社会互动让道，重要的问题就变成了组织/品牌应该参与哪些社

群、仪式、秘密和互动。只有非常专门化的专业服务机构才有机会回

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答这个问题。专家需要从他们目前的整合服务体系中退出来，从而专

注于特定领域，找到最大的相关价值，这才是客户真正准备花钱买的

东西。

遗憾的是并非所有专家，甚至那些专业服务机构都是生而平等的。策

划人员已经被定义在一个拥有很大个人价值的位置，因为他们帮助梳

理清晰凌乱的信息，并帮助给予客户的商业问题合理化的思维框架。

以此类推，专业化市场研究人员和管理咨询顾问也具有类似附增价值。

然而这使机构中的创意落于一个特别困难的境地。在一个“大创意”

(big idea) 越来越难以证明自己价值并引起共鸣的时代，创意就极具

危险变成可有可无的日用品。前面提及的《Fast Company》文章表

示，对于创意战略人员来说，获得更高价值的方式是把自己从一个单

纯讲故事的人发展成一个编写故事的人，这意味着他们需要统筹并参

与完整的与终端个体共同创作的过程，并对无止尽的策划提案修改贡

献自己的想法。这再次需要将这个职位变得非常专业化，因为故事制

造者需要擅长理解并保持特定社群中的细微文化差别，并将与其相关

的错综复杂的互动进行创新。

另外还有一些服务则在业务职责拆解并相对专业化之后将变得无足

轻重，并且有些已经初现端倪。比如媒体购买、媒体衡量，以及在较

小程度上说创意制作也逐渐变得更可被转换，变成普通的支持性服务，

因为它们不回答主要的商业核心价值问题：““应该制作怎样的内容

及内容制作针对什么人？”

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最终只有那些能够适应这种职责拆解、高度专业化、并能给予商业问

题合理框架思考的专业服务机构才能够给予客户提供最高的价值，并

收获最大的回报。

价值：

以上所说的模式、拓展和范围部分是关于如果进行自身构建以满足未

来行业需求，以下所说的价值部分则是关于定义并保持一个可持续定

位。

4）提供免费数据点，通过洞察获得报酬

一篇采访 PSFK 创始人的著名博客文章揭示了信息价值创造的新属

性，任何从事信息业务（比如专业信息咨询服务、出版商和媒体）的

人都应该关注。PSFK的小团队以非常快的速度处理大量的信息和数

据点。就好像是一个媒体平台，他们自由分享并宣传他们于公共媒体

上看到的信息。取而代之，PSFK从概念开发和趋势咨询中获得实在

的项目并赢利。他们的附增价值不是来自他们公开分享的精选信息，

而是来自他们通过链接分散数据点，整合模型而获得的洞察。

为什么免费提供你所需的数据？将其保密不是会给你带来更多优势

吗？

PSFK已经领会信息本应自由流动的新现实，从免费公开信息中获得

的利益远大于可能损失的对信息访问进行收费的收入。仔细想想你为

什么使用 Twitter。来自自发和转发所有相关链接的利益是什么？对

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于一个个体而言，你获得一群追随者，他们开始将你视为一种特定信

息的可信来源，对我来说这就是一种你能企求的对你来说最好的广告

方式。更重要的是，你正与一个不断增长的和你具有同样想法且同样

令人惊叹的人群网络建立起对话和关系。通过与你分享他们正着眼于

什么，这个人群网络也将不断提升你所消费的信息的质量。在这个新

洞察力经济中，专业服务机构实际上于他们所处的信息社群无异。忽

视社群融入和对社群承诺的传统市场研究模式已经不起作用。提供免

费的数据点。建立你的信息社群。从深刻觉察细微差别的洞察中获得

报酬。

5）依靠“窄播”的社群连接者

你的社群是你可持有的长期竞争优势，因为这是最难以建立和复制的

资产。问问任何 Web 2.0 平台，他们将证明这一点。社群不仅对社

会化媒体具有重要意义，正如我们之前所讨论的，社群对专业服务机

构也同样具有重要意义。一旦你融入一个独立而具差异化的社群并获

得社群对你的信任和信赖，客户将不仅仅想要利用你从这个社群中获

得洞察，他们也会想要亲自与这个社群建立联系。他们将雇佣你帮助

他们完成这种联系的建立。这将是专业服务机构在提供洞察之外的另

一种增值。因为这是一个真正靠影响力传播的行业。

作为社群连接者，一家专业的服务机构会依赖“窄播”：在战略上识

别社群领袖，并与他们合作，依靠他们进一步对能够对社群其它成员

产生影响力的成员产生影响。每个公司都将充分融入他们所针对的社

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群并通过他们扩大他们自身的影响力。PSFK提供与高水平创意思考

者的连接。Co.公司在北美通过媒体、品牌塑造、科技及与其他专家

的广泛网络扩大他们的影响力。“Fast Company”文章中提及的另一

家公司“Victor & Spoils”从位于科罗拉多州博尔德的业务运营总部聚

集创意制作资源。我自己目前帮助领导的“中国青年志”则一直探寻

与充满热情的机构组织还有各种中国青年社群建立连接的机会。

作为连接者能够创造巨大的双赢机会，但前提条件是必须获得社群的

信赖才能够实现。这种信赖植根于深入的社群融入、承诺、激情和成

员感。

我们能够在哪儿看到这种新型专业服务模式被融入主流应用

呢？

那一定需要在这样的地方：a）客户愿意尝试新事物并渴望获得绝对

领先优势。b）受集团公司控制较小。c）有足够多的天赋专家。d）

充满创业家精神。e）不断增长的有特殊兴趣的社群。

我要说中国在增加供应高质量有天赋的专家方面仍面临一些挑战，但

是，随着越来越多的人才为寻找新机会而迁移到亚洲，这个问题已经

在逐渐解决。中国面对的另一个障碍是客户。这并不是因为中国本土

客户不愿意尝试新事物，而是过往长期以来客户与广告公司/咨询公

司之间关系的不成熟和普遍缺乏标准导致了进步的困难。这需要继续

进行许多教育、手把手指导和文化建设。但是，这可能也是中国的可

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取之处。因为常规被打破而被阻止的传统较少，中国将可能更容易接

受一种新服务机构和咨询模式。

然而，我也可以看到有些其他地区已经开始率先尝试这个模式。所有

地区都有自己的弱势和优势，但都有进行变革的迫切需求，像这样的

模式正可以帮助解决他们的问题。我也推测这种模式的采用可能会按

行业推广，而不是按地域。广告公司和市场研究公司很可能率先采纳

这种模式。

卷末语：

随着所有这些重塑在专业服务机构、咨询机构中的进行，更多负担落

在客户方面。在新洞察力经济中，市场营销者将不能依靠一站式服务

来回答他们的所有问题，完成他们的所有工作。这将不仅仅是分配预

算和商讨比稿的事情。在帮助客户提出合理的问题思考框架并提供基

于对细微差别洞察所建立的商业战略的同时，只有客户老练得足以知

道他们需要什么样的专业服务，以及哪种价值创造真正对组织具有重

要意义，新型专业服务机构才能够增值。

如果你发现你自己正处于洞察力经济之中，并感觉到行业之痛，那就

开始你的重塑吧！首先问你自己你想要建立连接的社群是什么？为了

获得正确和相关的洞察并提供独特而有附增价值的专业服务，你又将

如何融入这个社群？

*****

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E: [email protected]

B: http://genYchina.com

T: @kevinkclee

T (Weibo): @青年志 kevin

W: www.chinayouthology.com

W: www.chinayouthology.com/blog

W: www.openyouthology.com

Kevin is COO for China Youthology, where he

leads business strategy and contributes as a

Sr. Insights specialist.

Kevin is a contributing writer at Forbes.com, and in

2009 and 2010 Kevin (@kevinkclee) was named

one of the top 25 Twitterers in China by AdAge

China and China Law Blog. He also is a respected

blogger, writing the well-regarded genYchina.com.

Kevin has an MBA in Strategic Management from

Canada’s #1 business school, the Schulich School

of Business, York University.