In a recent post on our RSW/AgencySearch site, we pointed out how marketers believe that “The Future Is Now” for digital agencies.  Results from our most recent survey suggests that digital firms can’t wait to get themselves deeper into the traditional space.  Marketers state that being digital-only simply isn’t going to cut it long-term – or now for that matter.  They need agencies that can look at their world in a broader context and not just focus on one media as many digital firms do.

In a recent AdAge Small Diary post by Tom Martin, Tom focuses on the flipside of the results, which is also important to point out.  In the same survey only 18% of marketers felt that traditional firms were well equipped in digital space, down from 22% of marketers believing the same in 2010.

Just like digital firms need to get with the fully integrated program, so do traditional firms.  Simply farming out the service – or only dabbling in it with websites and basic social platform development won’t cut it for too much longer.

Marketers are getting more sophisticated.  They are demanding more.  They want to understand how to reach specific consumers in specific spaces in the digital space.  They want to understand how digital and traditional media can work better together.  They want campaigns that translate across media effectively to build a brand’s equity consistently.

So no matter your position…digital with little traditional, or traditional with little digital…you need to find your way into doing both.  While there will always be a place for specialty agencies, those opportunities will become more and more limited as marketers have less time to manage multiple firms and the more they want greater integration in the brand programs.