What will the agency of the future look like?
With the advertising industry changing at a rapid rate and the rise of new technologies and advertising tools, change is inevitable. Senior agency executives share their thoughts on what the agency of the future might look like.
Henry Innes, management consultant and strategy director, says:
Innes says: ‘the agency of the future operates more like a market network’
“I always think of agencies as brands for collective talent. That’s what drives our business (talent), but if you think of it as an access problem, and we use brands to solve that/match talent to clients, then I suspect it’s a problem software can eat.
“So I suspect the agency of the future operates more like a market network, matching people to jobs based on history, performance, job type, opportunity — rather than simply brands for collective talent. Our current model in that context feels outdated and dumb.
I hope agencies of the future have real opinions and not this cliche ridden drivel. Truly reads like a PowerPoint deck from a ‘strategy’ meeting.
Click bait Henry is back again
The Hern dog, back saying everything no one else wants to hear!
Lilian made lots of sense.
also, the agency of the future is CHEP – why didn’t anybody ask them to contribute?
Henry is talking on the same themes a lot of the time. Anyone know if he’s launching or something soon? Feels that way
Small agile teams. Low overheads. Additional ‘Service’ extras (which will be contracted) if desired by the client and they want to pay.
Good for client. Good for agency not becoming stale.
+1
CHEP is a house of cards built on one guy’s brilliance. It is most certainly not the agency of the future!
They’ve done really well. Best of luck to them. They’re certainly interesting if nothing else.
Last time Henry ‘implied’ OMD could be the agency of of the future in his comments below the line. I wonder if that’s his next gig in the strategic revolving door there?
I’ve heard from a few people rumours he’s setting something up with funding from the UK
With the advent of technology the agency of he future is much like the agency of today, as Celeste put it, small agile teams.
Gone are the days of the big monster agencies, most of them reduce their overheads by outsourcing to smaller agencies anyway that white label their services to them.
The barriers to starting an agency are low. Media buying on the other hand, that’s a different kettle of fish as is the technology that could really help empower agencies…those barriers are higher due to the cost of technical development that may never pay off.
I also agree with greater potential collaboration that Chris Mitchell mentioned. There are more smaller businesses entering the market and potentially reducing their costs by offering equity to a capability that they simply do not have (i.e. marketing).
Off topic, but what is really promising is the growth in technology companies that are coming from Australia. Marketing technology is a real opportunity…as are technologies for many other businesses, through SaaS based offerings.
I like Lilian’s points – a very smart synopsis.
Advertising’s reason for existence and success to this point has been based on its influence on consumer choice.
So, advertising must now adapt to find new ways to influence choice because, simply, it’s not as simple as it used to be.
A big idea or a commitment to being ‘creative’ won’t necessarily win the day where things are increasingly predictive, intelligent and adaptive to real time consumer interaction. So what will win the day?
Algorithms.