Limited spots remain:

Join us Dec. 1-3 in Nashville for the Digiday Programmatic Marketing Summit

REGISTER

Relationship Matters in Advertising

Things are changing, that’s for sure. One major shift is that everyone is everyone else’s business. You have marketers that think they’re journalists, brands that act like publishers, and publishers trying to be agencies. It can seem like everyone wants to do something — anything! — other than what they’re doing.

Several advertising executives revealed their secret non-advertising dream jobs. Investment banker and ubiquitous PowerPoint slide maker Terence Kawaja, obviously feeling left out by all the fun alternative job talk, weighed in with his dream career.

But maybe different jobs aren’t all that different after all. After Percolate’s Kunur Patel argued marketers should give up on the idea of being journalists, one reader points out journalism is a business, too:

After all, it can be difficult to communicate across groups. We saw that as publishers gave their beef about agencies, most of the responses pertained to digital dealings. Edward Boches, chief innovation officer at Mullen, cried foul.

Relationships are, however, without a doubt hard. In the end, some decide they’re just not worth the trouble. That’s the case with brands that are moving their social strategy in-house rather than continue agency relationships. Ah, but the solo life is a hard one — and lonely to boot.

Content Marketing Strategist Joe Pulizzi explains that going it alone is a resource sink. It just doesn’t add up.

I believe the big challenge is not in developing compelling content for a media company…it’s the fact that the “agency” business is a completely different business model for a publisher. It requires heavy account management and client service that, sadly, most publishers simply don’t have. When I talk to publishers about the issue, we soon realize that they don’t have the current human resources to get these types of jobs done right.

 

More in Media

Creators are now classified as small businesses, but what does that actually mean?

The Small Business Administration has officially welcomed creators under its umbrella; let’s unpack what that means for brands, creators, and the economy at large.

One year in: DMG Media’s social-only briefs account for 30% of New Media revenue

DMG Media’s year-old New Media division is carving out a new social revenue stream with creator-led IP aimed at younger audiences.

election

The Hill adds interactive election tools to subscription offering ahead of the midterms

The Hill is betting on interactive subscriber-only features to help grow its new subscription business ahead of the 2026 midterms.