Agency 2.0
8/24/2010 5:20:13 PM by Jim Flynn
Today is a great time to be in the agency business. Never before have agencies had a broader range of communications vehicles from which to choose. New ones, old ones, fast ones, slow ones, big ones, small ones…you get the idea. Fact is, used to be enough to create some great ads, do some direct mail…maybe get your products in the hands of some influential professionals and have your clients wait for the revenue to roll in. But today, everything is different.
Sure traditional media still plays a role. But today, even Couch Potatoes are getting up off of their buds and taking their media with them. The bombardment of messages and the means in which they’re interacting with them is far more complex today than even the most clairvoyant of CMO’s or Agency principals could have imagined just a few short years ago.
No one needs to be reminded that turmoil within global economies has made it challenging for many agencies and clients. Today clients have extreme pressures for more-and-more accountability. To find new ways to do more with less. Less staff. Less money. Less time. Less whatever. These pressures can be devastating for agencies. They can also provide an excellent opportunity for innovative agencies to integrate, excel and grow.
I look at it like this. Well-run, midsized agencies have always been innovative integrators of brand messaging. We have always done a good job of creating unique brand strategies and compelling messaging. We have always created the “big idea” and integrated it across multiple media channels, from packaging to direct mail to trade advertising to out-of-home to television—to name a few. And, then wrapped it all in an efficient, cost-effective media plan. That’s always been our sweet spot.
So if that spot has always been so sweet, why have so many midsized agencies become irrelevant? They simply haven’t stayed ahead of evolution that has been happening around them. As their food sources (think client needs) have changed, they have simply hung out at the watering hole waiting for what they used to eat yesterday to come back around. And, while there is less-and-less of what they used to eat yesterday around the watering hole, there are also whole new breeds of predators in the jungle. So like their brethren the triceratops, their day has come and gone and clients have been forced to go elsewhere.
So, how in a world where it’s survival of the fittest, can you be among those who are most fit? Adapt. Evolve. Integrate. Embrace change.
So the hunt hasn’t really changed, what has changed is what’s for supper.