What will the public relations agency of the future look like? The short answer is that it definitely won’t look like it does now, but we’re pretty confident it will look like Bite. As the communications environment continues to shift and become more dynamic, traditional agencies face a Darwinian choice: change or die. Fortunately Bite has never been particularly traditional, and that positions us well for faster, smarter evolution. So our potential to morph and evolve is good, but in which direction? Dodo birds and dinosaurs are museum-quality examples of what happens if you get it wrong!
Bite plans to not just survive but to thrive by achieving our mission to “combine insight, expertise and passion to help clients create points of view that shape valuable conversations.” Helping shape a valuable conversation means creating the right content for clients to credibly engage the communities that are crucial for their business success. That’s where our Point of View methodology becomes important, and is now really energizing our social media efforts for clients.
Another crucial success factor will be our ability to help our clients with their marketing and communications needs in an integrated way across all offline and online channels. Building from a solid base, we’re making some rapid progress in shaping ourselves for the future. We’re increasingly using all forms of earned, owned, and paid media and pushing past the usual realms of what it is possible for a public relations firm to achieve on behalf of its clients. Today’s clients are looking for more than just social media and online public relations; they are looking for digital initiatives that help them meet their bigger picture marketing and business development objectives.
In August, industry leader Simon Mathews joined Bite’s San Francisco offices as head of Digital Strategy, North America, complementing the strong digital capability of Bite in Europe, led by Daniel Sands. And this week, Bite announced the acquisition of Hong Kong-based Asia regional digital marketing firm OneXeno, which we will integrate into our Asia Pacific operations to offer clients new levels of service, expertise and digital communications tools. And OneXeno’s founder Michael Zung joins Bite as Managing Director, Digital, Asia Pacific. The OneXeno team and their portfolio of services will greatly enhance our ability to lead and support our clients as they move along their digital journeys from starting to experiment with the tools, to fully integrating digital and social media into their strategies. We have always been at the forefront of integrating digital into the communications campaigns we create for clients, and Mike and his team bring to Bite a valuable combination of digital strategy, new online tools and relationships.