Welcome to the Age of Technology Enablement

We are all more connected today than at any time in history, and it should come as no surprise that the rate of new technologies entering the marketplace is rapidly increasing.  What does the dizzying array of nascent technologies mean for the marketing communications professional?  You are living in the middle of one of the most exciting times in modern business where better tools seem to appear on a daily basis.  Having UM as your thought-leading agency partner to help guide you through the maze of new technologies to those that will truly impact your business has become critical to marketing success.

At UM, the role of technology is enablement.  Enablement simply means we are using emerging technologies to modify current human capabilities; think of what the PC, the Internet, iTunes, and Facebook have enabled society to create. We also see enablement as maximizing each person’s latent potential, which helps our clients maximize the impact of their marketing investment to deliver explosive business results. How does this approach come together from a practical perspective?  Does a technology silver bullet exist?  No.  I only wish it were that easy.

The capability to develop a technology enablement strategy is a discipline that has become increasingly important at media agencies.  We believe that technology can provide a growing number of benefits: lower agency costs, provide on-demand information that includes investment and performance metrics, faster speed to market, better value for clients and improved return on investment.  Innovation in this area does not imply that the team that adopts the greatest number of “cutting edge” gadgets and applications wins the race.  Rather, the strategy of selecting the appropriate new tools and blending these with current applications and business processes to drive business value is the key to success.

A certain type of culture needs to be present for successful innovation in the technology enablement arena.  There is saying in the digital music business:“You know how to recognize the pioneers–they are the ones with the arrows sticking out of their backs.”  Driving innovation requires a team to be comfortable that they will occasionally stub their toes and use the learnings from the experience as a catalyst to improve future developments.  This collaborative culture is an important element to consider when choosing your media agency partners.  Understand that there are varying degrees of success when collaboration is not a key part of the fabric that weaves together interactions between the agency and client.

It is an exciting time to lead technology strategy in the media and entertainment, just make sure that you are wearing your seat belt as the industry hits a bit of turbulence as new technologies enter the marketplace.