Upwardly mobile? by David Parrish
It’s all getting a bit confusing. It seems that nowadays everything is digital and it’s all converging. Graphic design, video production, web design, music, games, social media and mobile apps are not just connecting, they’re overlapping and treading on each other’s toes. We are all adapting personally to rapid technological and social change as consumers. But changing a business to take advantage of these developments is a more complex challenge for creative and digital services companies in the Northwest.
Clients are confused too. They want their message out there on a range of digital platforms but don’t know how to do it. Tony Tickle, MD of tickle.co.uk agrees: “Clients don’t know where to go and don’t know how to specify what they want.” Some agencies are responding to these customers by offering an integrated range of solutions.
Kevin McManus, Director of creative industries support agency Merseyside ACME told me: “Some businesses are gearing up for even more rapid technological change. The big opportunities are in cross-platform projects and making the most of mobile technology.”
The mobile phone is now mainly a data device. Less than 15% of mobile traffic is now used for voice calls, according to Mike Short from O2, speaking at a Digital Bury event sponsored by Vision+Media. Everyone is texting and emailing on the move. Consumers are devouring content on their little screens. “If it isn’t visible on a mobile device, it isn’t visible,” says Tony Tickle.
Obviously, there are opportunities for creative and digital businesses in the Northwest. It’s easy (a bit too easy) for consultants and agencies to point this out and to urge creative businesses to develop new services and products for this growing market.
At the same time, as a business adviser working with several companies in this sector I know it’s not quite so straightforward. The reality for so many smaller firms employing less than 10 people – typical of the creative and digital sector in the Northwest - is the question of how to develop new products and services when everyone’s already overstretched with current projects and existing clients.
Why is this the case? Perhaps because most creative businesses spend too great a proportion of their time on creativity and not enough on business. The boss is constantly working ‘in’ the business, not ‘on’ it. Creativity is useful in the board room as well as the studio! Creative entrepreneurs seldom use their creativity to design their own business model to generate the profitability needed to achieve a step-change in development and growth.
Even if a business does have the resources to invest in new initiatives, there are significant risks involved in being a digital pioneer. Everyone likes to talk about (and perhaps envy) the winners, but for every successful business that hits the big time by taking risks, there are scores that go bankrupt. Somehow they don’t hit the headlines or talk as loudly.
Deliberately deciding not to be a pioneer can also be a rational business strategy.
For one reason or another, most digital and creative services businesses will not be at the cutting edge of new technologies. This is the case for most businesses in the region but is not a peculiarly Northwestern phenomenon. It’s a function of the size and business models of the vast majority of firms in this sector nationally and indeed internationally.
Clearly, mobiles are on the up. The challenge for digital businesses in the region is to make sure they also go upwards, by each creating their own unique business strategy to take advantage of the rise of the mobile device.
Copyright © David Parrish. 2010.
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