Tailor-made solutions for a successful agency

BY JOACHIM FISCHER

(Published in The Produktkulturmagazin issue 4 2017)

Stagnating or falling marketing budgets, a growing number of media touchpoints and shrinking marketing departments, make it impossible for many clients to meet the challenges of communication. The consequence is an increasing demand for comprehensive consultation and made-to-measure concepts designed to work on all channels. How should an agency be structured to meet all these demands?

For more than 15 years, Kontrast has been dealing with this question and has developed its very own procedural and technological solution. In this context, five years ago, we opted for censhare. Consultation and experience play a disproportionately important role regarding the choice of service provider. Many clients have understood that a good solution requires a high-performing team. It remains a “people’s business”. As most customers prefer an integral solution, they are looking for experience and thus opt for an agency that can offer this experience.

The more insecure a client is in relation to the demand of digital transformation, the keener they are to find an experienced agency or consultant who is at home in different areas of media and who can offer confidence in decision-making. Which means that our strategic approach must aim at the specific needs of the customer. 

The positioning and approach to different skills, such as creative excellence, process excellence and marketing technology, enables us to meet the customer at various entry levels. As Kontrast has positioned itself in the market at three different entry levels, it can offer the customers a selection of approaches and thus reduce the expected complexity. Moreover, a higher positioning in the technical area of the market will be possible after the spin-off to take place at the 1st of January 2018. 

Kontrast sees itself as a navigator in complex communication challenges. In the past year, we had the term “createering” patented, as we are of the opinion that only talents from both creativity and engineering in cooperation can develop solutions that offer a lateral possibility to the client. Kontrast believes that the agency concept of the 1990s is a thing of the past. An agency attending a pitch today is not only expected to supply creative performance, but should also discuss different digital touchpoints and how they deliver customised content. If the agency cannot offer any of this, it will not survive the first round.

We have frequently noticed during presentations that censhare’s system offers a multitude of options for the customers. At this point, Kontrast can step in and help the customers choose. Even prior to the presentation, a simple and purposeful strategy can be outlined. A short questionnaire helps to clearly determine the customer’s “anguish”, which then can be analysed in the presentation where solutions can be offered. Further possibilities offered by censhare can be discussed in the aftermath.

What does the customer of today really want? Customers want a general consultation across different touchpoints. Regarding implementation, they want a specialist who can provide precise and competent solutions in all areas. Kontrast as an agency can list relevant and up-to-date examples that show that an optimised structure and precisely fitting workflow can be implemented in common work contexts and will help to achieve significant savings as well as quality improvements. 15 years back, we started to connect different channels and to ensure that content care can be provided in a single, concentrated unit rather than separately for each channel. There are different use cases which we can present to customers. We can provide independent technological advice, as we feel it is important to assure the customer about the consulting and implementation expertise of our team.  As an agency, we are able to absorb the customer’s demands and break them down to the specific solution. In a first step, we provide procedural and technological support; in a second step, we can followed this up with strategic and creative provision of concepts, if so desired.

Kontrast has already developed a POS module to extend censhare for decentralised presentation to retailers. ICA (Image Content Analysis), developed by Kontrast itself for tagging pictures in 102 languages, offers a very good entry level in some situations.  The overall concept of a “solution agency” is first and foremost linked to our approach to reduce cost and effort, as only practically-oriented solutions for the communication challenges of tomorrow can attract sustained attention of the customer of today.

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INTEGRATOR

Kontrast Communications Services GmbH, founded in 1991, is an owner-managed solution agency. With its 150 employees to date, Kontrast provides a comprehensive portfolio of communication solutions across all touchpoints, from classic campaigning via digital solutions to highly individual customer solutions.

Kontrast Communication Services GmbH 
info@kontrast.de
kontrast.de

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