ENOUGH ABOUT THE COMPETITION ALREADY

For so much of my career, there was a massive amount of attention placed on "the competition." I suppose it was just a given. It was assumed that clients and their agencies obsessively comparison shopped, so we went way beyond simply keeping an eye on the competition. A massive amount of resources, directly and indirectly, went towards monitoring and addressing the competition.

Wow, that was a bad use of energy, time, money and people.

All businesses have competitors. In my industry of media & marketing, the competition means other agencies, media, and event marketing vendors. Of which there is no shortage. And I’m not posturing as if TikTok or ESPN or Comcast are my competition because there are thousands of smaller shops and vendors like mine battling for projects (and also because I hate when someone claims every single advertising outlet is their competition, spare us already).???

Let me back up. Earlier in my career at a couple of different media+marketing places, there were countless efforts to prove our marketing platforms generated the best results. Endless research studies to prove effectiveness and magical ROI. Media presentations and pitch decks with slide after slide filled with metrics and oh-so-impressive numbers. This stuff all centered around comparisons to other marketing outlets (our competition). The goal: prove we were better. Of course, everyone’s data proves they are the best, but that doesn’t stop this crazy train from rolling.

When I founded my own shop 8 years ago, for a short while I continued the obsession with the competition. We monitored web sites, tracked down rate cards, and made a major effort to explain in our materials how we differentiated ourselves from the competition.

But as time went on, “the competition” became less of a thing. As a small business and hustling agency, we didn’t have the resources to focus on what others were doing and saying. Nor were we commissioning pricey research reports or subscribing to measurement services. We certainly didn’t have the desire to pay attention to them, either. Whether by accident or cause, our clients asked less and less about our competition. The emphasis placed on comparative numbers was replaced by an emphasis on ideas and creativity. ??

Fast forward to August, 2023 … none of our staff hired in the last 3 years can name a single competitor. Go ahead and ask ‘em: they’ll likely stare are you with a blank face (and a little disdain, I suspect, for wasting their time). None of my clients ask about the competition. We track no other firms and we haven’t produced any data comparing us to anyone. ?

So what the heck happened??

We still have competition. True, “experiential marketing” is a weird and small industry but we cross into so many segments of marketing-advertising-media that I know I’m just a minnow in a very full ocean. But we are putting zero attention on the competition despite some robust growth.

From my POV, here is why “the competition” has disappeared:

-?????????We offer our services as a specialty, not a commodity. We don’t do things that can be compared like cable rates or the price of an apple or media impressions. We don’t like that game so we don’t play it. ?

-?????????Clients seem to be more comfortable working with a small, tight-knit group of vendors they love and trust. The days of triple-bidding every job and bcc’ing 29 vendors for quotes seem over. Maybe marketing teams turned the tide against procurement and bureaucratic red tape?

-?????????Everyone seems to accept the fact that since anyone can offer up eye-popping stats that prove the point they are the best, the charade is ending. Hammering ROI and metrics in a pitch meeting draws yawns (or simply the name but no live facial feed on a Zoom). When everyone claims to be the best, no one is.???

-?????????We no longer have to explain that consumers crave experiences or justify that experiential is a powerful play. Clients have already cleared that hurdle by 2023. They are now jumping right to the next challenge in the process: finding the idea that will work.?

-?????????Our clients (and their agencies) are fixated on finding smart, resourceful and honest partners. Being the cheapest, biggest or fluffiest might work to score one job but it’s a bad long-term play.

Look, I recognize many folks work in industries where competition will very much matter. Ignoring the competition is outright impossible for a massive number of businesses. Pepsi vs Coke is very real, airlines fight for your ticket money, the streaming wars have that title for a reason, you only need one lawyer yet there are hundreds to choose from, etc.

But perhaps for every hour spent writing up a report on the competition or fixating over market share in one quarter in one region, if instead companies spent that time focused on ideation, consumer engagement, and creative breakthroughs, maybe things would go better.

I’m not sure who’s nipping at my heels, who is trying to steal my clients or who is hiring like crazy. I’m too busy running a business and charging ahead to notice. My clients don’t care. My employees don’t care. My P&L doesn’t care. So why was I caring so much about the competition in the past? Because that’s what I was told.

Now let me tell you something: stop caring so damn much about the competition.??