Ad Age recently published a great read and fascinating article, In Search Of A New Ad Agency Model, on March Th, 2005. Jonah Bloom reports on how certain smaller shops are gaining serious ground by understanding all of the new mediums and how to offer true full-service with a smaller and more nimble group.
Here’s the irony: I passed the article around at Twist Image today and one of my associates replied: “so… We’ve been doing this since early 2000.” While his comment made me smile, it also made me realize that we can turn a battleship in a bathtub – most “traditional” agencies can or have not.
The search for a true agency is only frustrated further by the fact that many agencies claim to have as advanced technology knowledge as their creative work. It turns out, more times than not, the clients coming to the table know much more about how to make things work in newer mediums and across channels than the agencies.
I hope Ad Age continues on this path of discovery by featuring these types of agencies and studios who have one-tenth the employees but execute with superior speed, efficiency and results. I’ve been amazed at what can be done by a small team that gets it.
This is not a scathing finger-pointing Blog posting. It’s a call to action for all marketers to get in the know with what’s going on – from online, wireless, narrowcasting to the many new channels that are proving to provide real value and concrete results.