Mary Beth Kemp

Let’s say you’re a traditional agency who gets it.   Depending on the size of your shop, you’ve probably hired one or more digital strategists who are bringing new technologies into both agency culture and clients’ business. 

What happens to these guys later? 

That was the question framed by an agency leader on a call I had earlier this week.  “What is the career track for the digital strategists at my agency?”

Obsolesce.

No, it’s not as bad as it sounds.  But if digital strategists do their job correctly, they should do themselves out of that job.  My reasoning:  once digital is firmly entwined in an agency’s approach and thinking, that role of cheerleading digital shouldn’t be neccessary. Three years from now, if one guy is pulling an ‘integrated’ agency’s digital offer, it sounds to me like a road half-traveled.

The career path for a digital strategist should be a senior agency role, in planning, client management…ideally with a portfolio of clients who are early technology adopters.   But their game shouldn’t stop with digital.  They and their teams should manage the whole media mix.

So the bottom line is, digital strategists should become as integrated as the rest of us.