More than a digital marketing agency - we're community builders

Photo by  Anthony DELANOIX &nbsp;on  Unsplash

The more I talk to people about what we do, the more I wonder what it is exactly that we do.

In the last couple of months, we've clearly evolved. We're not just a digital marketing agency in Hong Kong anymore, we're so much more than that.

A digital marketing agency is typically one that does content creation, social media marketing, marketing strategy. The bigger ones will also touch on PR/outreach, influencer marketing, SEO/SEM and PPC, maybe even some design work. But we've moved in a different direction - we're starting to help companies find and place talent because that's what they're actually looking for (and we don't want to be the same as everyone else).

However, lately, we've realised that we're more than that. We're not really a digital marketing agency because of the way we approach things. Our job isn't about marketing companies and building an audience (sure we do that as well) - our CORE JOB is to build communities. We build communities and engage them for brands, we just happen to do it through the use of digital marketing (social media marketing, content creation, paid placements, etc.).

We exist to help connect brands with their desired audience. That's what we do, and that's what we do well. While other similar agencies in Hong Kong are trying to sell a service (and trying to grab every available dollar), we're trying to engage an audience in a way that creates true fans - fans that will stick with the brand over time (and continue to buy their products as they come out).

We're not just a digital marketing agency. We're community builders.

Hire full-time or hire an agency?

Photo by  Brooke Lark &nbsp;on  Unsplash

Photo by Brooke Lark on Unsplash

This question doesn't get asked as much as I would like. It seem people automatically assume that hiring a marketing agency is expensive and hiring full-time marketing support is better. But is that really so? *HINT* NO.

Hiring full-time support makes sense when you know specifically what you want, and you need someone to take on only that specific role. For example, if you're an e-commerce platform and you need someone to manage SEO/SEM. However, what tends to happen is that companies hire a digital marketer and expects them to do EVERYTHING under the digital marketing umbrella - this includes social media, content creation, SEO/SEM/PPC, influencer outreach among many other things. Sure these people exist, but they're few and far between (and expensive!). In reality, most digital marketers are specialists in only one (if you're lucky two) of the categories.

On the other hand, with agencies you can tap into their resources. For the same price as hiring one digital marketer (we'll assume they're a social media manager), you can hire an agency that has resources across content creation, data analytics, etc. Most companies are small and don't need full-time help across all the different areas, so hiring an agency makes more sense.

In many cases hiring a full-time digital marketer means that this person is just there to manage all the different agencies that the company is using.

Deciding to hire between a digital marketing agency and a full-time digital marketer really depends on what stage your company is currently in. In most cases you can't go wrong with going with an agency (obviously biased), but like everything there are many different factors affecting the decision.

I spent a bit more time analysing the different situations, and you can read them on MEDIUM.

Wednesday Updates

Things we're thinking about this week:

It doesn't matter how creative you are, how innovative you are or how smart you are - all that really matters is whether you can execute. There's no value in just thinking, you have to do something (and often just start, letting it snowball along the way)

  • Want to start a company? Write a plan and start talking to people 
  • Want to learn about digital marketing? Look for some free courses around you and ask for some book recommendations
  • Want to learn to ride a bike? Rent one and find a friend who can teach you


Differentiate or die - can't repeat this enough. Drives me insane that marketing agencies are all evolving to become identical (offering the exact same services - graphic design, SEO, SEM/PPC). Where's the differentiation? Why don't they practice what they preach? That's why we're staying away from the same old and branching out into recruitment (among other things in the works). Never settle for good enough - we're going to die by that.

The 'Silence' Killer

Photo by  Clem Onojeghuo &nbsp;on  Unsplash

"If you don't have an opinion, then is there a point of having you in this meeting?"

There's nothing I hate more than people without original thoughts and opinions. The one thing that differentiates us from each other is our ability to think critically and add value through experience, thought and perspective. However, there are people out there who don't have anything to contribute.

While some people feel that they don't want to offend anybody and stay neutral, doing this adds no value (and if you're not adding value, what's the point in involving you at all?). If someone was hired to be an expert in a specific field (let's say digital marketing since we're all about that), then they need to have an opinion about what to do with social or how best to approach PPC for clients. However, if they just 'go with the flow', then we might as well have hired a robot instead. They're a waste of resources.

Read more about why I hate people with no opinions here.

Getting serious about Digital Marketing

Photo by  Clem Onojeghuo &nbsp;on  Unsplash



The 3 Basic Tiers of Digital Marketing (Channel Expertise)


1 — SEO, Content Marketing and Social Media

2 — CRM, Paid Ads (display + PPC)

3 — PR, Community, Events









  • Strategy & Planning
  • Data & Analytics
  • Funnel Marketing
  • Research
  • Design & UX
  • A/B Testing
  • Storytelling
  • Partnerships
  • Branding/Positioning




But all is not lost.








