One of the fastest growing titles in marketing is “digital strategist.” Everyone wants them. Question is: How do you find them, what are the qualities for judging them, and once you find one what do you do with her/him? (Read the specs on these job descriptions some time.)
A friend runs a very nice web design and development company in NYC. One day we were meeting (okay, drinking beer) and he told me “I’m working on the strategy for Stella Artois.” The brand planner in me wondered what a web guy was doing working on the strategy. Asked to clarify, he said on I’m working on the web strategy.
I’ve long advocated “there’s only one strategy” and many ways to express it – called tactics — but that’s just me. I suspect companies are burning lots of calories hiring digital strategists because someone needs to manage all the social media managers. Hee hee.
So here’s the fast take: Fifteen years ago brand and account planning grew out of the need to unify advertising, promotion and direct marketing. PR should have been in the fold but wasn’t. And now with the algorithm, dashboards and web nerds commanding serious budgets – and Radian6 and Google giggling all the way to the bank — the demand for digital strategists is taking off. Band-Aid. Brands need one brand strategy. One brand architecture. And smart groups of people to bring it to life. As the family is gets bigger, parenting becomes more important. Peace!
