The US and the UK are very different in terms of their approach to digital marketing, but increasingly Uk agencies are finding a niche stateside and using this to bridge the skills gap in both territories.
It may be stating the obvious, but the US and the UK are very different markets. All you need to do is look at the above-the-line advertising that comes out of the States compared with what comes out of the UK. Not only are US ads brasher, they tend to be littered with warnings to help brands avoid litigation. The US audience thinks differently and so expects a different type of advertising and marketing approach and this is also reflected in their approach to digital. But increasingly UK agencies are finding a niche stateside and using this to bridge the skills gap in both territories.
The real difference in terms of skills is that the US suffers from a shortage of good creative talent whereas the UK has fewer clever digital strategists, marketers, optimisers, researchers or analysts. The US is at least two years ahead in these areas and much more advanced in techniques such as multi-variant testing, data analytics, information mining and ECRM – all things marketing directors barely implement in the UK.
Where do these differences come from? There are really two key factors that set the UK and US markets apart: size and culture.
The US is a very disparate market, every state is like a different country. If you’re based in New York then you’ll only tend to have clients either in or around New York. There are some exceptions of course. To really take on America we’d need at least three more agencies, in a selection of key areas such as California, Silicon Valley, Chicago or Texas. Because of this sheer size you tend to find that budgets are often higher, which means digital agencies are able to invest more into research, tracking, testing and strategising. Whereas a typical UK test sample size would be around 10,000 people, in the US that would be around 100,000. So, they are able to build up a much clearer picture of online activity.
Culturally, the States is used to a much more brash style of advertising and they tend to try to squeeze way too much information into their websites. In the UK, on the other hand, our design ethics are much more subtle and about keeping things simple and so far this European creative is being well received, particularly among high-end brands. However, when it comes to mass consumer, all-American products, from Gap to Chrysler, then the American way still holds it’s own.
On top of this, the US has a much more “online” mentality, they are far more plugged in to technology and proud of it, and this tends to be reflected in the fact that their technical development skill sets are much more developed than ours. They are more advanced in terms of delivering Flash and video, as can be seen by Cannes Lion winner Big Spaceship’s voyeur campaign for HBO.
Cutting edge concepts like Web 2.0 Web 3.0 were born out of the US. Indeed the current thought is that the future of the web is about apps living online and the US skills base is way ahead in terms creating user interfaces that cross from desktop to online and working in environments such as Flex.
We have been using our offices to tap into these ideas and talent in from the US. And we’re learning from them. This is exciting and as an agency out in the US we’re able to bring these skill back and pass them on to our UK clients. In return we are shipping over some of our really creative people and showing them what top end European creative is all about.
This cross-pollination of skills and talent is not only good for our clients, it’s also good for staff morale – when everything is a little bit down there’s nothing better to lift the agency than giving people an opportunity like this. This process is still very much a work in progress, so there is no official protocol for doing it. As other agencies like Poke have subsequently followed in our footsteps, opening an office in New York, I believe the digital sector will be seeing a lot more of this in the near future.
Author: Fadi Shuman, Co-founder, Pod1