The Winterberry Group recently came out with an 18-page white paper which can be downloaded here, highly recommended. Discussing in detail the rise of the online agency and its effect on traditional advertising, the study describes the effect that personalization technology and an increased focus on ROI is having on the the agency/client dynamic.
Despite a few questionable interviewee quotes ("This means less advertising in the future and less money for media -- all media. That's a reality." -Dave Morgan, CEO, Tacoda), the article is generally well-structured and thought out, and ends with a rather strong conclusion:
"Going forward, we expect even more dramatic changes to affect the marketing model. Exemplified most dramatically by the evolution of the established 'agency holding company' enterprise, it is likely that today's execution silos may disappear altogether, as brand advertising and direct marketing services merge under the banner of a new, consolidated "general agency" -- one that will be channel agnostic, following market demand rather than trendy creative in search of the optimal media mix."
I'd argue that trendy creative will always play a role within the channel-agnostic general agency they describe, as market demand will never provide more than guidance, and new ideas will always lead the pack.
That said, the discusson without a doubt further supports the ideas discussed in the Efficiency, Not Spend post relating to how the concept of a one-off, single-channel campaign is dying, instead being replaced with a web of connected tactics all supporting one central call to action, and the agencies that will survive will be the ones who are nimble enough to either directly support or at least manage all the different pieces.
How these kinds of more complex "metacampaigns" are going to be measured across all their aspects has still to be defined, but here's hoping that with an increased focus on analytics being integrated into tactical efficiency (see Omniture launching their SearchCenter product last year), the battle for the agency analytics spend will be won by the software who offers not just the deepest tools, but the broadest ones.
Atlas Solutions, time to wake the hell up.
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