Every day, someone has a great idea for some new web-based application or service. Be it mobile, social, or out-of-home — odds are that it didn’t happen because someone didn’t have the ambition (or funding…or time) to see that idea through to fruition. That idea was a service, a product, that fulfilled a specific need. Interactive agencies are in a unique place — they can make products and services that fulfill those needs.

Instead of spending the second half of the year’s budget on a website refresh and some flash banners, what about creating something that people need to use? If it’s something really useful, you don’t need to inject branded image after branded tagline. If you provide a digital product, something of utilitarian value to your consumer, you don’t need to brand the living hell out of it — because you’ll be seen as a company that cares about fulfilling the needs of its consumers in more ways than one.

Your digital agency probably has droves of amazing ideas, and for whatever reason, they aren’t always able to devote time or resources to flushing out those ideas. Odds are, with a few tweaks, these ideas can become digital products that offer true value to a user set. That value can be anywhere from “wow that’s really useful in my life” to simply a “wow that’s really ridiculously cool”.

Some things to watch out for are issues with branding strategies. For instance, a location-based bookmarking application that allows users to geotag pictures of the places they’ve always wanted to go but have never had the time or money to get there, would be great for an airline, hotel, or travel-centric company. You can then use that geotagged data to alert the consumer of special offers pertaining to any relevant locations they may have bookmarked. They buy your products, get the brand exposure, and most importantly their trip to Rome… everybody wins.

The same service however, would not be so good for Heinz Ketchup. Staying on strategy, or finding the right way to weave in a communication platform is vital for the success of an initiative like this.

An application that pulls the level of pollen in the air for the day from an online weather service and make a recommendation as to the specific allergy product you might need that day (Benadryl’s Pollen Alert Widget) is not only useful, but it drives some serious branding as well. Start thinking of things that your target market would really truly need and use — and I’m not just talking about product information or tips. I’m talking about things that they would use every day, or at least once a week. How can digital fulfill those needs? Digital shops have the budgets and resources to create something that lasts longer than just your next promotion. They have the power to create something of value for their client and their client’s customers.

After this extra value is established, the amount of media that supports the initiative (though still somewhat necessary) won’t matter as much. People will want to tell others about your wonderful new product, and online word of mouth will take over and feed the fire known as “viral marketing”. (We need a new word for “viral” by the way, any suggestions?)

Now this doesn’t have to be a life changing product or service. It can be as simple as an application that asks you for your zip code and an email address and alerts you anytime a specific item you asked for goes on sale in your area… and does nothing else. This sort of automation easily connects potential buyers with a business, and doesn’t waste anyone’s time.

The flip side of this is that digital agencies also have the resources to be able to craft product offerings for their clients as well. What business problem does your brand need solved? The first, and most obvious choice is to provide a listening and brand monitoring platform to your client. A tool that aggregates what’s being said about a brand in the blogs, news, Twitter, Flickr or YouTube is not only useful for your client, but useful for the agency as well. However, not all clients have the time to review and analyze the effects of what is (or isn’t) being said about their brands. Productize this research as it has tremendous value. Offer a monthly recap of what happened in the blogs, show connections between online buzz and offline activities, pose questions or concerns that consumers may have had, or show them an idea that someone mentioned on Twitter. What was the most enticing user generated content? Client’s want to know about what their consumers are doing with their brand.

The digital realm can not only solve lots of problems, but it can also create lots of cost-effective opportunities. With the growing ability to easily port applications from device to device, the reach is nearly there and soon enough, marketers and brands that don’t begin to offer digital services that provide an additional benefit to the consumer will be looked at as ignoring their consumers’ growing digital life. Fueled by the rise of Web 2.0 apps, brands will have to force themselves to be forward thinking and be willing to take the monetary risk associated with creating such an application. But more importantly, the rewards will be plentiful when a brand actually fulfills an unmet consumer via the use of modern technologies.