How IBM built one of the world’s top digital agencies
Through a string of acquisitions and data-processing forces to be reckoned with, IBM IX has taken the lead in the world of digital marketing.
A March 2017 Adweek report on tectonic shifts in the brand marketing ecosystem noted how professional services firms such as Accenture, Deloitte and PwC are muscling in on this space along with one well-known tech giant: IBM.
Big Blue, the Big Four consultancies and a handful of others are said to be aggressively pursuing an acquisition strategy that is reshaping the marketing landscape, and industry observers believe this activity will continue to ramp up. Indeed, in the early days of 2016, IBM snapped up three digital agencies in the space of one week.
So, why is a technology company entering the realm of digital marketing? For starters, it’s a lucrative industry. Adweek cites eMarketer projections that digital ad spending will top $300bn just two years from now. And then there’s the blurring of lines between technology strategy and brand strategy.
The term ‘digital transformation’ has been driving business strategies across a multitude of sectors, but now there are new terms shaping company roadmaps: ‘big data’, which is heralded as a necessary and transformative business intelligence tool; and ‘customer experience’, which is championed as the prime objective for brands to satisfy.
Digital transformation, big data and customer experience meet at IBM Interactive Experience (IBM IX), Big Blue’s digital agency backed by considerable computing power.
“[We] are focused, essentially, on enabling our clients to digitally transform their businesses through platforms, data and customer experience,” said IBM IX global associate partner Marketa Mach, deftly summarising the formula that has positioned the agency as one of the leaders in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Digital Agencies for the second year in a row, sending a warning shot to traditional agencies.
IBM IX has only been around since 2013 but was already hitting revenues of $1.
