Why is Dragon Army so laser-focused on mobile?

I get this question all the time from friends and peers in the industry, “Why only focus on mobile? Why not have a specialty in mobile, but allow Dragon Army to do other areas of digital marketing, like social media and web development?”

It’s a fair question. We could grow faster if we did more than just mobile, for sure. And I’m nothing if not focused on growth. 

But here’s the thing: I have a vision that mobile is the future of marketing. It’s the one medium that can stand alone at the heart of the relationship with the consumer while also being the bridge to connect and enhance all other areas of marketing. 

The state of things today is that mobile is small sliver of what brands spend on digital marketing. Sure, it’s what every CMO lists as their top priority (heard the term mobile-first before?) but they spend very little time/energy/capital on pushing forward in mobile. I can expound on that as well, but it’s a more lengthy topic.

Full-service digital agencies can’t be great at mobile. I’m sorry, they just can’t. “Great” means putting your best people on it, spending your top intellectual capital on it, and studying it more than anything else. How can a full-service digital agency possible claim to do that, when – and I’m just guessing but I know the space as well as anyone – maybe 10% of their revenue is coming from mobile? Maybe. More likely it’s sub 5%. If 60% of your revenue is coming from social media, then your best people HAVE to be working on social! And I’m not judging, when I had an agency where 60% of our work was in social media, my very best people were working on social. I’d be crazy otherwise.

So there’s this big need for mobile advancement in the agency space, clients want it, but most agencies aren’t able to focus on it. That’s why Dragon Army exists. Because there is a gaping hole in the industry, in an area that is absolutely the future of it. No one debates this. What they’d debate is that a full-service digital shop can be great at mobile, to which I say, no chance.

If I were to start letting Dragon Army do anything other than mobile, it would pull our focus away from our vision in exchange for a faster run-rate. And that is where the power of being an independently owned agency comes from. I don’t have to report up to a holding company or a private equity company. I can be patient, taking my time to execute the plan and not get distracted by short-term gains.