The rise of social media sites such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter is transforming the nature of Twin Cities advertising firms.
Call it social media, or digital, or interactive, or customer engagement. Marketing work in that area now makes up a quarter to a third of revenue for major marketing firms; it accounted for less than 10 percent two years ago.
Some big firms — such as Colle+McVoy Inc., Martin|Williams Advertising and Risdall Advertising Agency — have changed their organizational structures and are operating in new ways as they seek a larger piece of that business.
Meanwhile, firms that were already heavily invested in social media, including Olson and Space150, are enjoying jumps in revenue as they ride the wave.
Some kind of threshold appears to have been crossed, said Greg Kurowski, CEO of Minneapolis-based Periscope, whose firm has about two dozen employees primarily working in digital — about double the number three years ago.
Clients used to need persuading to market in social media; now they usually expect it to be part of the package. “It’s where the market is,” Kurowski said.
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