Letters: Some agencies are taking a global view

15 May 2008

In your Leader (NMA 01.05.08), Bacardi's head of digital Ian James suggests UK digital agencies tend to be domestic and tactically focused, raising the concern that "clients' needs are outrunning their agencies' capabilities". While this may be true of the majority of design and build agencies, it's certainly not of digital customer experience agencies.

In many cases, due to both time constraints and local market expertise, major brands are using local agencies for design and build. We work closely with these to help them ensure they have the facts needed to create a consistent brand experience across multiple markets. We're frequently the only constant in a global project beyond the brand employees.

There are fundamental differences in the ways users interact between countries, with cultural, social and economic, as well as obvious language, differences. While it may be ideal for clients to have a single international digital agency, without the support of traditional ad or media networks there's no way that UK agencies can develop this expertise without a process of trial and error.


From Paul Blunden, CEO, Foviance