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Are Big Agencies Evolving Fast Enough for the Future?

by john follis
Saturday, July 30, 2005. 08:58PM
597 Views 8 Comments

I was recently chatting with an HR/EVP at a Global Mega Agency, when I was asked, “What kind of agency might convince you to give up your independent status?” After thinking a second I replied, “…an agency that’s more focused on the future than the past." I added, "An agency that realizes that the old, traditional options are becoming less and less relevant for their clients.”

With that she sniffed, “Our clients are global brands, not some local restaurant with no budget.” I couldn't tell if she missed my point or just disagreed with it. Either way, it seems endemic of too many dinonaur-like agencies who continue to ignore “other advertising", not because that “other advertising" isn’t right for their clients (it often is), but because they can’t figure out how to make big (media) money on it. No wonder why more and more large agencies are losing business to smaller, more progressive thinking firms.

Any thoughts?

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 8 shown
Thursday, October 6, 2005. 06:26PM by Kaza Razat
Earlier this year I would have said you're right John, mega agencies are dinosaurs futilely lumbering away from the coming meteor. But after my experiences in the last 5 months I'm not so sure. The megas get it and they're moving fast. I consult on new business for a handful of mega agencies and the words "new media", "digital", and "wow factor" lace the pages of many a RFP. Finally there's a role for life long subversive iconoclasts like us.
Thursday, August 4, 2005. 05:48PM by Marc Lefton
If the account believes in the leadership, staffing is an afterthought. When the heads of a major shop were kicked out of the agency I worked for, it was me, the two leaders and 4 freelance art directors pitching a huge bank account. We won, and now the agency is a $100MM agency.
Wednesday, August 3, 2005. 01:34PM by Kevin Glennon
I think it's going to start with confederations of smaller shops. Mark, can you seriously handle a $5 mil account by yourself? Not many 10-person shops can handle a $500k account for that matter. But, you put some strategic alliances in place, with really good teamwork, and smaller agencies could group together -- think Voltron -- to make bigger impacts.

Oooh... and how cool would a Voltron Fossil watch be?

Tuesday, August 2, 2005. 09:55PM by Mark Roberts
There will always be big dinasaur shops. The question is, who will they be? Evolve or die and have your carcass picked clean. Right now I make my living off of ankle meat, my guess is the successors will be small shops like mine (but probably not mine) which outmaneuver the larger shops. Then they will transform into what they outwitted to get where they are. Advertisings lack of respect for its own history and older professionals is the reason, in my opinion, big agencies make the same mistakes over and over.
Monday, August 1, 2005. 10:24AM by Marc Lefton
I like good account execs. Any bad account execs, creatives, art buyers, production people, broadcast producers, traffic managers, print producers and receptionsists can ruin an agency. Every job is vital. It's just that it's a lot more obvious when an account exec @#$%s up. They're in a job where the best they can do is NOT @#$% up! That's a tough position to be in. Creatives get to have a certain standard that they can sometimes beat. The standard might be to do good work that doesn't embarass the agency. Beating that standard might be getting a "Best Spot" or an award.
Sunday, July 31, 2005. 06:01PM by Kevin Glennon
And, I don't blame the account folks here, either. I think account folks are the most important people in an agency. (really!)

There are many levels to communication at the large agencies. Unless an ExP (where X means "whomever") gets directly involved on the client side, directly calling the agency side, shit can't happen anything but slow.

Sunday, July 31, 2005. 05:59PM by Kevin Glennon
I don't think it's that they scoff the "other" advertising options, I just think many large agencies are so set in their ways that timing influences creativity.

When an account exec walks in on my client's weekly meeting, and announces we only have three weeks to get something out, and tells us the parameters involved -- the mistake wasn't in the execution, it was in the communication. More often than not, that project was asked for three or four months before, and the agency basically sat on it due to internal communications problems.

Smaller agencies can launch more integrated ideas simply because they hear the client's initial thoughts, and act on those. They don't act on the thoughts, parameters, and limited time frames of account execs who have been tied down by the Big Agency Jungle.

Saturday, July 30, 2005. 10:27PM by Liam Strain
We've been referring to a few of the local giants as adversaurus agencies...

But you hit the primary point in your last paragraph... until they find a way to make new media very profitable, you can bet they won't be the new vanguard.

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