Getting the best performance from your digital services supplier

Why do some digital service providers produce the goods while others fail to deliver on revenue and engagement expectations? What makes the difference between an average performer and a great one? A great agency provides innovation, market intelligence, benchmarking and strategy over and above the contracted digital marketing campaign or ecommerce, app or web build. A great agency moves from a short term focus on the transaction to a trusted advisor, contributing advice and lateral learnings gained from other industry sectors on improving workflows, fine-tuning processes and breaking down silos within an organisation. Setting up for success is key to getting the ...

Getting the best performance from your digital services supplier

Why do some digital service providers produce the goods while others fail to deliver on revenue and engagement expectations? What makes the difference between an average performer and a great one? A great agency provides innovation, market intelligence, benchmarking and strategy over and above the contracted digital marketing campaign or ecommerce, app or web build. A great agency moves from a short term focus on the transaction to a trusted advisor, contributing advice and lateral learnings gained from other industry sectors on improving workflows, fine-tuning processes and breaking down silos within an organisation. Setting up for success is key to getting the ...

Digital Disruption in Australia Review

It’s a short read, but there's a lot packed in to this very useful guide to mergers and acquisitions in the technology, media and telecommunications sectors specific to Australia. Written by entrepreneur and leading technology lawyer Nick Abrahams, Digital Disruption in Australia: A guide for Entrepreneurs, Investors & Corporates is a wake-up call for the entire economy. It is estimated that over 50 percent of Australian businesses are currently affected in some way by digital disruption. It's not all bad with digital disruption revitalising the tech sector with the greatest rate of change in the last two  years. Abrahams provides a well ...

Managing risk in agile projects – new workshop for digital project managers

Sydney: 5 November 2015. Back by popular demand, Digital Nation’s one-day course on the Agile Digital Project Manager will be held on November 24 in Sydney. Particularly with agile where cost overruns and timetable slippage due to constant change are a real risk, it’s critical to have proper processes in place. Most agencies and clients new to agile haven’t yet developed the cost controls and workflows required.   This one-day intensive covers how to make agency processes more efficient, what tools are needed to deliver profitable projects, and how to make the agile relationship work well between client and agency.   Commenting on the launch, ...

New workshop assists digital services businesses to grow and exit

We're delighted to invite experienced entrepreneur, corporate advisor and investor, Matt Costello, to lead a new workshop called Valuing and Growing your Digital Business to be held in Sydney on 14 October, 2015. Mini MBA for digital agencies Bookings now open for the intensive one-day. Key outcomes of this business bootcamp for digital workshop Business Valuations - what acquirers looking for and how they value the digital business Management Dashboards - how to best track the right information in your business. You will build a dashboard on the day Financial Management - understanding the balance sheet, business case developments and financial ratios specific to digital Press ...

Losing independence: acquisitions in the digital agencies sector

Another independent agency bites the dust with the recent announcement that digital agency Webling Interactive has been acquired by ad agency J Walter Thompson. Webling, started in 2004, has a stable of pedigreed clients including Amex, CommSec, Coca Cola, Coles, Fuji Xerox, Google, Mirvac, and Yates. The agency has been well recognised, with Webling's "My Garden" app for Yates winning the IAB creative showcase award, and an Amy at the Digital Industry Association of Australia's AIMIA Awards. While the sale was for an undisclosed amount, for the year ending June 30, Webling's revenues were 4.4 million Australian Dollars ($3.21 million), with ...

Managing Agile Waterfall Business for ROI

Full scale 'pure' agile is not for everyone. Most companies need to work within the boundaries of a fixed funding or annual operating program and processes. And if operating in a highly regulated or complex environment, introducing agile is difficult. This one-day seminar on 31 March investigates how to take the best from both worlds, manage agile in a waterfall environment and still deliver ROI. It also brings together the C-suite of product, business, program, finance and legal managers.

Maximising the value of your digital business – and heading for the exit

Consolidation in the digital agency sector continues with the acquisition of digital agency Reactive by consulting firm Accenture in late November. Founded in 1997, Reactive Media was one of Australia’s largest independent digital agencies, headquartered in Melbourne with offices in Sydney, London, New York and Auckland. Highly successful, the agency has marquee clients such as Nissan, Coles Supermarkets, Tesco (UK) and most recently winning Goodman Fielder's digital strategy. The Reactive acquisition caps off a busy year for mergers and changes in the digital/mobile agency landscape with: Ogilvy Australia taking full ownership of digital agency Bullseye with over 100 staff in September DT (part of ...

Coca-Cola rewards agencies for truly innovative work

Coca-Cola is extending its value based compensation structure, giving its agencies the opportunity to earn 30% bonus particularly on innovative projects. According to the article in Ad Age the company is applying a "70-20-10" rule, meaning a standard performance-based compensation for the 70% of work that agencies are most used to doing. In addition, agencies can take advantage of  a guaranteed minimum bonus for the 20% of projects labeled "evolved" or the 10% for projects being tackled for the first time. Plus, there's the opportunity to earn another 5% of the guaranteed minimum in Coca-Cola's new agency bonus structure. I wrote ...

Project Management Tools for Digital Agencies

I haven’t met a project manager yet who has found the perfect project management tool. They’re generally working with two or three systems, as one size rarely fits all. So is there one tool out there that does the job for digital agencies? The answer is…it depends on the task. Do you need to create a project plan or track or as a collaboration/communications tool? What’s the size of your agency and how many people will use it? While you can’t beat trust old Excel for simplicity, here are some common tools rated highly by local agencies (note that license and set up ...