Service as Innovation - Adam Kleinberg

Sitting here in agency-land, it's easy to get a case of I've-got-a-hammer-so-every-problem-looks-like-a-nail Syndrome.

If you're a digital media agency, innovation might look an awful lot like a DSP (demand-side platform). If you're a digital creative shop, innovation may mean an iPad app. If you're a traditional agency trying to pretend you're not, innovation might mean putting a twitter hashtag in your client's Super Bowl spot.

To me innovation is about using creativity and logic to find a way to something better. It's critical to clients because it gives them competitive advantage.

Why not innovate when it comes to the core of what you do?

What is too often forgotten is that agencies are professional service organizations. We provide a service. And not only should the end products derived from that service be innovative, the service itself should be.

Here's a news flash for most agencies: Every client is different.

They all have unique needs. They all have unique challenges. They all have unique structures, limitations, personalities, politics and contexts. Yet agencies, particularly large agencies, try to make the service they provide to them turnkey.

While process is critical to ensure quality products, it should enhance the fulfillment of the client's needs, not frustrate it. Agencies should have a process, but they should look at it as a framework that can be adapted to the specific situation at hand.

If you take a process and use logic and creativity to find a way to service your client better, well you've just innovated. And probably gone a long way toward keeping that client.

Here's an example.

One of our clients, a large online e-commerce brand, recently fired its big agency (Traction sits on the cusp between small and mid-sized). They shared with us the process that the former agency used and asked us to take over that piece of business. We came back to them and showed them how they could dramatically reduce what used to take five days with their old agency to a matter of minutes.

When a business repeatedly charges customers for unnecessary and time-consuming work, it's only a matter of time before they lose that customer. Sure, there was some revenue we could have made had we done what the old agency did. Instead, we provided a professional service that was adapted to the needs of that client. And our relationship with (and revenue from) that client continues to grow.

The very nature of agencies is to be innovative. Our clients engage with us because we are adept at using creativity and logic to find a way to do something better than they could do on their own. This is the service we provide.

We should provide it innovatively.

Stir (never shake) a spoonful of charisma, a jigger of positive energy and a mind as sharp as a freshly plucked lemon and you get close to the cocktail that is Adam Kleinberg. Adam is CEO and a founding partner of Traction, an advertising agency and innovation consultancy in San Francisco. He can be reached at adam@tractionco.com.

Read all Adam’s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Adam Kleinberg.

Check us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggers.com
Follow our Twitter updates @MediaBizBlogger

MediaBizBloggers is an open-thought leadership blog platform for media, marketing and advertising professionals, companies and organizations. To contribute, contact Jack@mediadvisorygroup.com. The opinions expressed in MediaBizBloggers.com are not those of Media Advisory Group, its employees or other MediaBizBloggers.com contributors. Media Advisory Group accepts no responsibility for the views of MediaBizBloggers authors.