agency

Over the past week I’ve literally been in a “Wikipedia War” over an article that I had submitted about the evolving definition and role of the Social Media Agency.

At the Forrester Consumer forum David Armano successfully goaded me into doing a podcast, with his promise of creating a logo for me, and the condition that he can be my first guest i acquiesce.

iCrossing received $62 million in funding last week, and Jeffrey Herzog, the digital marketing company’s founder and CEO, said that a portion of it would go towards “strategic acquisition capital.”  Herzog wasn’t kidding - iCrossing has now bought Proxicom.

Yahoo and Google both appear dedicated to growing their presence in the Indian market, and to this end, Yahoo recently announced that it had bought a stake in Tyroo Media.  Call this one a “significant investment” (as Yahoo does) - it’s equal to about 35% of the company’s value.

There was a time when, apart from industry awards shows and the occasional book from an advertising or PR industry legend - agencies were largely invisible to consumers.  Marketing agencies created advertisements, managed relationships with the press, and generated campaign strategy on behalf of a client, but remained in the background. 

A bit of rant here - I know the whole ethics debate is tired and most people don’t want to read about it these days but I gotta throw in a word or two about it. I just did a freebie consultancy for a small business - the lady who runs it on her own is completely bewildered by SEO, and having seen her so passionate about her business I gave her a call and straightened a few things out, offering a free basic consultancy (which tbh, is all the site needs - it’s not a competitive market).

When I wrote "The Top 10 Business Mistakes Search Marketing Firms Make", I included a few of the items I commonly discover, when working with marketing firms, especially search marketers.

UK SEO agency, Big Mouth Media announced over the weekend that they have merged with Euro online marketing firm Global Media, creating a company which is estimated in value between £100 and £200 million (reports vary depending where you read!).