The “Messy Middle” of digital marketing

There's a "Messy Middle" in digital media activation, particularly for what we like to call “Mid-Market” brands.

On one side you have creative firms. Often stronger on positioning the client brand, thinking outside the box, creating intrigue, and building big-picture campaigns.

⬆ The Oft-Broken Middle ⬇

On the other side you have digital marketing partners. Often stronger on leveraging data, pulling insights, testing angles and promos, and executing campaigns to audience segments.

Sitting in the middle?

Typically the client, with a small team and a bit of confusion on who is doing what. All too often, we see this disconnect leading to attractive branding and production from their creative partner sitting in a folder, collecting dust ➡ and a digital marketing partner that's only able to leverage 20% of that "stuff" while asking for more/different "stuff."

Examples?
That’s a great print concept, but we haven’t bought a magazine placement in 6 years.
Or that’s a lovely concept on that video spot, but it’s addressing a completely different audience than we are seeing convert on the website.

It's not a new issue, but solving that messy middle—a drop in strategy between agency exchange—is crucial.

How is your brand or agency addressing the gap? More detailed briefing from media partners? Agency collaboration calls (yay!)? Client hiring additional in-house strategy positions to own audience segmentation (gulp)?

My take: we all have to be creative problem solvers and get comfortable outside of our "lane." Media people need to think creatively. Creatives need to understand Ad delivery platforms. And everyone needs to repeatedly ask, "why does my buyer give a crap about this?"

The partners that can fill those gaps will win the trust of brands over the long-term.