Running a photography business can be incredible fun, offering unique experiences and opportunities to meet diverse people. However, it requires significant dedication and effort, often demanding extra hours beyond a typical workweek.
WordPress plays a key role in this strategy. The content management system (CMS) and its ecosystem are vehicles for helping us adapt to what's next. Features like connecting to third-party APIs and implementing artificial intelligence (AI) come to mind. It all adds up to an exciting time to build websites and related applications. However, it's possible to go a little too far with technology - particularly when it comes to customer service.
If your client pauses your services, it could mean that they're facing financial difficulty and by offering further collaboration, could potentially help the business - in the end, we're all going through this together. In terms of maintaining your relationship your team could offer consultancy at no extra cost.
Understand the changing role of consumers. Take back ownership of the strategic agenda. Review the relevance of 'old world' classifications such as above-the-line and below-the-line. Develop open sourcing for ideas as a viable financial model. To take responsibility for driving a change in pricing models to account for the impact of digital. Move to outcome-based compensation rather than hourly rates and manpower.
In the 2026 installment of the State of Digital Media Benchmark, the media consultancy analyzed the governance protocols of 143 major advertisers representing about $35 billion in annual spend. One chilling if unsurprising conclusion: agencies blame clients for being so siloed the agency doesn't have clarity on client data, which is arguably the lifeblood of modern digital marketing. It all translates to what the report cited as a "dangerous disconnect between 'having data' and 'having visibility', particularly among the world's largest advertisers, those spending at least $1 billion in media annually.
Winning a prestigious award, such as our recent Gold at The Drum Awards for PR in the Entertainment category, is always a proud moment for us as an agency. It validates our expertise, builds credibility, and sets us apart in a competitive market. We leverage awards as a key part of our marketing and business strategy in various ways. Sharing the win with clients reinforces their choice to work with us - after all, everyone wants to partner with a winner!
Every week there are stories of brands retendering, with agencies enthusiastically falling over one another in a race to the bottom on margins. Among the most recent cases, Hilton has set about building its own internal "centers of excellence" dedicated to specific media and marketing areas, which will be reinforced by the right niche and independent agency. One of the unintended consequences of the digital revolution has been to challenge the identity and purpose of the all-encompassing agency.