Comments on: Are Traditional Ad Agencies Relevant Anymore? http://polarityinc.com/2009/03/are-ad-agencies-relevant-anymore/ Helping companies go beyond ad impressions to actually sell something Mon, 08 Aug 2011 04:09:08 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.2 By: Steve Patti http://polarityinc.com/2009/03/are-ad-agencies-relevant-anymore/comment-page-1/#comment-583 Steve Patti Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:49:26 +0000 http://polarityinc.com/?p=412#comment-583 Great Seth Godin commentary on the needed transition between renting vs. owning eyeballs; agencies expecting to survive must make the transition: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/09/the-platform-vs-the-eyeballs.html Great Seth Godin commentary on the needed transition between renting vs. owning eyeballs; agencies expecting to survive must make the transition: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/09/the-platform-vs-the-eyeballs.html

]]> By: Chris Norris http://polarityinc.com/2009/03/are-ad-agencies-relevant-anymore/comment-page-1/#comment-202 Chris Norris Wed, 08 Apr 2009 15:31:36 +0000 http://polarityinc.com/?p=412#comment-202 The title of this post is something I have spent quite a bit of time pondering lately. Your insight is dead on and I see a complete shift coming in the next 10 years that will completely change the agency landscape. The biggest issue with agencies today is that they are no longer agencies but really holdings in a portfolio of investments by the companies that put them under an umbrella. The ad agency or any other that has been bought cannot redefine itself as it needs to as you propose because the parent company that owns them will quickly remind them that is not what they do and not why they were purchased i.e. we have x agency over here that does that so let's go sell the client their services also. Problem being the client is looking for ROI now more than ever and the agency is not equipped or empowered to respond. The end result is that they "talk to themselves" and the client complains they have x number of jr. level people working on their businesses and the cycle continues as client wants lower fees and the agency wants new and bigger business. The largest threat to agencies today is companies killing the retainer. They want ROI and demand that the initiatives that are proposed are "performance based" and that they deliver. Companies look at this from the perspective of "I am expected to deliver results and I expect results from my agency, I am not tying myself to a retainer without seeing ROI if at all. Branding was great in the 80's and 90's but now it is all about ROI which is a top down effect by the number of CEO's that came from the financial side of businesses in the form of finance and operations. They want branding but more importantly they would throw it out in a heartbeat for consistent ROI that delivers profits. Unfortunately most Sr level corporate executives do not understand how to bridge all of the forms of messaging and agencies are so segmented now that there is not a consistent dialogue to solve for all of these issues so the agency world gets more and more segmented. This ultimately will allow for smaller, more efficient and smarter companies to start taking businesses from the bigger guys as ROI drives the need for lower fees and better results which agencies are not equipped to deliver on. If you have ever worked at a medium to large agency i.e. 250 people or larger and 4 or more locations, you will realize the challenges are glaring and the business model is about to change to the detriment of many. The title of this post is something I have spent quite a bit of time pondering lately. Your insight is dead on and I see a complete shift coming in the next 10 years that will completely change the agency landscape.

The biggest issue with agencies today is that they are no longer agencies but really holdings in a portfolio of investments by the companies that put them under an umbrella. The ad agency or any other that has been bought cannot redefine itself as it needs to as you propose because the parent company that owns them will quickly remind them that is not what they do and not why they were purchased i.e. we have x agency over here that does that so let’s go sell the client their services also.

Problem being the client is looking for ROI now more than ever and the agency is not equipped or empowered to respond. The end result is that they “talk to themselves” and the client complains they have x number of jr. level people working on their businesses and the cycle continues as client wants lower fees and the agency wants new and bigger business.

The largest threat to agencies today is companies killing the retainer. They want ROI and demand that the initiatives that are proposed are “performance based” and that they deliver. Companies look at this from the perspective of “I am expected to deliver results and I expect results from my agency, I am not tying myself to a retainer without seeing ROI if at all.

Branding was great in the 80′s and 90′s but now it is all about ROI which is a top down effect by the number of CEO’s that came from the financial side of businesses in the form of finance and operations. They want branding but more importantly they would throw it out in a heartbeat for consistent ROI that delivers profits.

Unfortunately most Sr level corporate executives do not understand how to bridge all of the forms of messaging and agencies are so segmented now that there is not a consistent dialogue to solve for all of these issues so the agency world gets more and more segmented. This ultimately will allow for smaller, more efficient and smarter companies to start taking businesses from the bigger guys as ROI drives the need for lower fees and better results which agencies are not equipped to deliver on.

If you have ever worked at a medium to large agency i.e. 250 people or larger and 4 or more locations, you will realize the challenges are glaring and the business model is about to change to the detriment of many.

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