Digital media planners (the good ones!) are used to change. More than that, change is in our DNA. Outside of work my friends think I’m slightly barmy – always busy, oversubscribing myself, running around – I don’t do standing still. I’ve never not worked in digital, and I fear my work may have conditioned me 
. Either that, or the worrier in me chose a career in digital. I’m well versed in the “what if’s” of life!
Still, it’s not all bad. Digital planners don’t fear change, they embrace it. They thrive on it. It’s our trading currency. We’re continually telling brands to change and to try something new. Not to throw the baby out with the bath water – to apply tried and tested marketing methods but with a new twist.
And slowly but surely brands are starting to change. They have to, to keep up with consumer change. Now, after fifteen years of digital growth and, let’s face it, significant cultural transformation (some argue that the internet has had the biggest impact on our society since the industrial revolution in the late 18th Century), it’s time for businesses to change too.
A year ago, I left the comfort of a big digital agency where I worked on ‘digitally advanced’ brands, and entered the real world. I was shocked to find that there are still thousands of businesses who have yet to take advantage of this digital reformation. And some businesses who really should know better: retail businesses who aren’t maximising their search marketing and customer acquisition efforts; media owners and publishers who are watching their readers consume digital content, yet they are too scared to reach out to them via new channels; membership organisations who are nervous to test new online community strategies.
I do get it, I understand – businesses are groups of people who are scared to change, worried about being exposed by what they don’t know. And that’s OK. There is a massive education and hand holding process to be done.
As Harold Wilson said: “He who rejects change is the architect of decay”. And the writing is on the wall for businesses who don’t embrace digital change. And none of it is rocket science – it is process change, commercial change, systems change, skills change, strategic change and communications change. Physical change is the easy bit – it’s the psychological change that is the hard part.
Trying out new tactics and seeing which work (and which don’t). Of course there isn’t one blueprint to digital success that fits every business. But we’ve been in the digital space long enough to have tested all the options. We’ve taken the hits and the learnings, so that our clients don’t have to!
Having survived the Recession (fingers crossed!), it’s time for businesses to step it up a gear. To stop being afraid of the dark. This is why we’ve created Reform. We are facilitators of digital change for businesses who are hungry for more success. All our clients have to do is to demonstrate the will to change – and we’ll calmly navigate them through the digital waters.
Tags: business, change, Digital media, search, strategy