Rarely has an industry group generated as much interest and angst as the Society of Digital Agencies (SoDA).

The organization was founded to address problems that are undoubtedly real. Interactive agencies today operate in a landscape where clients and educational institutions often have outdated practices and expectations. They use Request for Proposals (RFPs), curricula and legal agreements that do not reflect the complexities of digital development. In addition, almost every agency in the industry has its own processes, terminology and documentation.

SoDA has stepped in to provide standards that should protect agencies and reduce the chaos. The nascent organization has 50 members and the critical backing of Adobe.

So what's the catch? SoDA is an invite-only group, composed largely of elite, award-winning agencies. They choose who’s in and who’s out. While SoDA argues that a smaller organization is necessary, its structure seems to confirm every boy’s-club, popularity-contest stereotype in the industry. Worse still, some (but not all) of the agencies have used their membership for marketing purposes. This has left many firms outside of SoDA understandably suspicious of its intentions.

Paul Lewis, the likeable former CEO of AgencyNET, is the person tasked with allaying these concerns and pushing the organization forward. He passionately believes that SoDA has the right ingredients to advocate effectively for the industry. In the interview below, he outlines SoDA’s goals, methodology and vision.

CA: How did SoDA come into being?

Paul Lewis: A group of thirteen leading digital agency CEOs received invitations to come to South Beach to discuss the future of the digital marketing business over drinks.

There, we honestly began sharing information about the challenges in this industry and the need for best practices. There were profound problems that were not being addressed. There were common legal and process issues. People coming from design schools and traditional agency backgrounds didn't have many of the skill sets we needed. There were also challenges with the documentation of our industry, partly because nearly every agency uses different terminology for things.

We met a few more times and decided we could establish a trade group that could benefit the whole industry. So the rising tide could raise all boats.

CA: What is your mission?

Lewis: The Society of Digital Agencies serves as a voice for digital marketing professionals with a mission to advance the industry through best practices, education and advocacy. We’re trying to bring awareness to issues in the digital marketing industry that impact brand marketers, traditional agencies and other digital agencies.

For example, on the legal side most brands today have contracts that contain an indemnification clause. They want you to indemnify them if they have a lawsuit. This is a low-risk clause for a TV advertisement. But on the Internet, there are patents for all kinds of crazy things, and it’s hard to indemnify someone against things you’re not aware of. We’re trying to create education about this and other legal issues.

We also provide best practices. For example, we try to identify what should be in a Master Services Agreement (MSA). What is the best practice for an RFP or a Statement of Work. Many brands have the idea that if they send out dozens of requests to agencies, they’ll get the best response. However, agencies that provide detailed responses to RFPs make a substantial investment of time and resources. It’s not fair, from an agency standpoint, if they have little chance to win the work, unless the company is compensating each agency for their RFP time. Likewise, agencies are providing their highest value— ideas and experience. Requiring that all ideas become the property of the company whether or not they are selected for the project is asking something for nothing. So we want to educate companies about equitable ways to approach these problems while still meeting their goals of receiving diverse responses and the ability to execute ideas. For instance, they could start with
a simple Request for Information and pick a small number of agencies for the RFP from that.

CA: What kind of materials will you produce?

Lewis: We’re working on elements such as RFPs, position papers on sequential liability and standards for all terminology. There will also be standards for documents like wireframes, MSAs, statements of work, letters of intent, client update briefs and process requirements documents.