Disclaimer: I work in a sales role for Blueye — a tech company. This puts me in a position that’s opposite a lot of the “big agency” perspectives I will discuss from this article. The goal of this post is to elucidate some of the issues that tech start-ups are facing because of their size (number of people) and as a result, the speed at which they can move (read: fast).

AdAge Digital released a blog post today that explained a disconnect between how agencies and tech innovators view their digital endeavors. Agencies are running into issues in evaluating what a “Like” means or what the new “Want” button will mean for brands; simultaneously, tech innovators have moved past the “Like” and are surprised that it’s taken this long for a “Want” addition to appear for Facebook.

Therein lies the problem: speed. Many tech innovators are on the cutting edge of the business, too busy sculpting the next platform and defining how to talk about it to care about how big marketing firms will initially value it. Big agencies might devalue these platforms because they appear dime-a-dozen and are laden with a new dichotomy for explaining their value (i.e., Open Graph). What both sides need to realize is that deep down, it’s still about the same song and dance: data. Continue reading →