The myth of historical reflection as truth
Each client is unique. And although you can apply lessons from one client's programs to another's, you can rarely duplicate success. Unfortunately, marketers attempt to wholly replicate successful programs all too often. Instead, they should be taking what they learned and adapting it for their new clients.
When an agency pitches, it demonstrates how a given strategy or tactic worked for another client. The new potential client gets excited because it likes the look of the program and would love those kind of results. The problem is this: The results and goals that the agency presents to its new client, based on a past program success, are not the results and goals that the program was originally created to achieve. In other words, only with 20/20 hindsight was the agency able to surmise why the original campaign was surprisingly successful. Its original client did not set out with lofty expectations.
In short, don't set the client up for expectations you can't meet. Be honest.
The solution
As I explained to one agency I was working with, "I want to be the best follower in the world, but I want to follow ideas that are adapted -- not replicated -- for me." In other words, I do not want to have an agency use my company's money to learn big things; I want to learn and adapt small things. Revolution is a painful process, but innovation builds on what has worked before.
Break down what has worked in the past and plug it into a toolbox of options. But always start by asking the question, "What does success look like?" Seek to answer that question. Look outward first in terms of what will help achieve success, and then look inward and dig into your toolbox to see what you already have.
Too often, agencies turn first to their toolboxes to see what has already been done. It makes sense. It's easier. But as a result, marketers often tack irrelevant elements onto online projects -- they fall back on the "send to a friend" link instead of looking into something innovative like Tynt.com.
