Sabir Samtani: the blurred digital line
The big future of digital questions
Jye: This month sees the return of A Digital Perspective – the original interview style questions this blog was founded upon. For some years now I’ve known and worked with Sabir Samtani – founder of the hottest digital agency today (they have the awards to prove it), REBORN. It’s been a real pleasure to work with someone who you learn so much from, and at the same time, have many, many laughs with.
Sabir, in my opinion, is a part of new breed of digital agencies: he – and his business partner David Easton – represent a new, straight forward approach to digital thinking and high calibre agency. We’re all in this together.
Sabir:
- Who looks after a clients overarching strategy?
- Who manages their social media?
- Who leads the ideation?
- Where does search fit in?
It’s these questions that most agencies will put their hand up for and rightfully so, as the digital offering continues to get blurred across digital, above-the-line, media, pr, social media, search and content agencies. PR agencies now offer social media, media agencies now offer creative & search, digital agencies now offer an integrated approach and above-the-line agencies now offer everything…so who leads with the client and its the very nature of this situation that makes it so important for agencies to work together ‘collaboratively’ to ensure that they achieve their clients objectives as one team.
Although used quite freely, ‘collaboration’ is the key to ensuring a successful relationship. Starting internally within each agency, its important for teams to work collaboratively and everyone at the agency to have a say. The idea should be a discussion that takes place across various departments with the strongest, most relevant idea put forward, irrespective of who comes up with it.
For most of us, the bigger collaboration issues occur when each agency has a different vision for the same client . In an ideal world, the client and their agencies (above the line, digital, media and PR in most cases) would work ‘collaboratively’ to deliver successfully on the same objectives. As the responsibilities and offering gets blurred as the world moves further into the digital space, its an area that is getting more difficult to manage as everyone fights to lead the big idea and overarching strategy.
It’s important to a client that their agencies work together towards that common objective. When it comes to digital, a significant percentage of clients are not so savvy and they depend on their agencies to be experts.
When specialists from different channels can collaborate on the same objective, its going to eventually lead to better result for the client…and that’s what its all about at the end of the day…a happy client!
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About Jye
Jye Smith is currently the Digital Strategist for Weber Shandwick Australia. Ranked in B&Ts 30 Under 30, he's a regular keynote speaker and workshop facilitator who specialises in digital strategy, social media marketing, and change management.
