That’s right people – there was a little thing called the Global Financial Crisis that meant that marketers have reduced their budgets, and consequently a lot of agencies have been doing it tough.

As a new agency, The Population were up against it during this economic period. There fate isn’t a result of agency structure, creative or strategic capability or focus on a niche. I think it is because the world very nearly went into depression! A victim of timing!

Matt – your tone continues to reinforce your reputation…

don’t send gary!!!!!

Social media marketing can’t exist in a vacuum nor can it look at itself as a stand alone solution that will tick all the boxes.

Human behaviour is as varied as it comes and therefore so should be your marketing strategy..blah blah blah

My formula for a good SM outcome? Provocative and compelling talking points meets as many and highly varied touch points as technologically possible. Open every channel available and give people a reason to use them.

Btw – I don’t understand the ongoing belief that a Social media MD/specialist would need to be active in social media themselves to be effective. I know many amazing PRs and to my knowledge, none of them write or edit or contribute to any publications ongoing.

Someone can deeply understand the nuances of a social media platform withouth having to spend 3 hours a day on it.

Hell! I’m too busy running around after clients and my team to spend my day twittering but that doesn’t mean I’m less effective as a SM strategist.

(commenting on Mumbrella is different of course!)

Take care of your customers and social media takes care of itself.

Pretty simple, really.

The model that has failed needs scale – clients with intensive social media presences – but most large scale social media projects end up being run by the client themselves (i.e. customer service) as they are more empowered than an external agency staffer or they want more control (i.e. in community management) or have certain legal requirements.

Even if the Population had grown a client to the point where they had 4-5 people working on a single client – most of that work (the day-to-day community management/customer service/etc) would probably be taken in house by the client, with the strategy/consulting/media-buying stuff left with the agency.

The commercially viable business for social media is still a) full-service or larger digital agencies, where it is included in the media mix – perhaps at the centre for many. Or b) as a owner-operator consultant writing strategy and policy frameworks for 10 or so clients at a time.

As it’s always been, the agencies that respond to this change and evidence their understanding through their campaign ideas are the one’s that will succeed.

I think “social media thinking” can exist as a stand alone offering (the US has SM agencies of 30+ staff) but it is more likely, in Australia, to rest with a small group of well rounded “planners” who’s job it is to understand internet consumer behaviour, whatever that may be.

The Population has no doubt done good work and been very generous with their case studies and learnings, but ultimately I wonder if a specialist social media agency make sense. Perhaps it makes no more sense than a specialist media agency, or PR agency (disclosure I work for Weber Shandwick), but the margins are big enough in those businesses for now. For me, unlike @Mike, I don’t think the Population was 18 months ahead of its time, instead I think it was applying an old agency logic to a new medium – i.e. let’s specialise. Collaboration across marketing disciplines typically delivers the best results, adding more siloed agencies into the mix doesn’t. IMHO anyway.

Clients often view the one-stop-shop with scepticism, yet gathering a collection of experts from various disciplines often breeds politics and territorialism, as well of course higher fees.

Time will tell the extent to which there is a market for standalone social media agencies. However, it is no secret that in the main those agencies that do well (whatever their core competence) excel in one thing – their ability to operate in a team, regardless of the logo on their namecards, and deliver on what it is their clients need.