Hi there. I am currently taking a digital marketing course and the final project is about digital marketing agencies. I'm looking for some data if possible on the number of agencies in the UK and/or USA by year (to see a trend of an increasing number of agencies) if there is one.. Also if anyone has any information about advertising spend by agencies per year then that would be great as well.. Any ideas/information would really be appreciated. Many thanks Oliver.
I do not really stay on top of this type of data, but were I to start researching such a topic, I would start with the Direct Marketing Association (here in the U.S., anyway.) http://thedma.org/ Having been a direct marketer for 20+ years, I find it amusing that "digital marketing" is lauded as something new and different than the advanced marketing techniques used prior to the Internet. I also find it amusing that new agencies would limit their offerings to online, only. The veteran agencies simply added a digital "department" to take advantage of the new buzzword. Sames people, but different positioning for the gullible. Kind of silly, but it works. Let me explain it this way: long before there was an Internet, direct mailers were already using customer psychographics, demographics, and directly gathered data to customize marketing to customers and prospects. Remember that marketers have had easy access to computers since the PC revolution began in the mid-1980's. In the 1990's, Peppers and Rogers took it to a new level (IMO) with their emphasison 1 to 1 marketing and was very sophisticated in its use of what is now called "big data." "Big data" is relative, by the way. Likewise, long before the Internet, Nonprofit fundraisers were collecting extensive data about their donors and using it to carefully target their marketing and sales efforts. I have seen many CRM systems over the course of my careers and nothing comes close to the data captured and the analyses performed as what the Fundraisers have. And, by the way, the Internet based CRM packages like SalesForce.com and SugarCRM are significantly inferior to the old client/server CRM systems like ACT! or Goldmine. Anyway, sorry for the rant, but I obviously have a bit of a problem with the concept of digital marketing agencies. Good luck with your project.
Hi there - thanks for the tip, appreciated!! I agree with most of what you say - with the exception of salesforce over Goldmine!
You would be the first user that I have communicated with that prefers SF over GM. I would be very interested to learn why you think SF is comparable to or better than GM.