THE FUTURE OF AGENCIES? BEING A PLATFORM.
Is it game over? Are agencies on their last legs? Some experts believe this is nothing less than the “last stand” — our “fate” and “downfall” are already set in stone. We’re going the way of the Titanic. It’s a tragedy. No happy ending, just high drama. We’re scrabbling to retain a last little corner. And while noises about agencies’ swan song have become de rigueur, those who now do in part what agencies have always done are celebrated. Bloggers, influencers, media outlets, business consultants, and all the rest.They are taking business away from agencies by consulting, developing, producing, executing as well as generating reach and creating cultural assets. Agencies are losing touch with clients. And customers.
The crazy thing about all this? It’s not news. It’s happening right in front of our eyes. We know that we have to offer more than just “advertising.” We know that our “business is about changing behavior.” And we know that we have to integrate many more skills than we did a few years ago. Creativity is no longer a walled garden as it was in past decades. Agencies have lost their exclusive claim to it. But is creativity really less in demand or do we simply view it differently today? Shouldn’t any agency in the fourth industrial revolution ensure its core product is always up to date? In the old days, we would produce a few highlights each year per client; now it’s 24/7/365 and increasingly a matter of supplementing creative talent with technological expertise.
Want to know what’s even crazier? All those skills we need to integrate are currently right there within our own ranks. We’re already developers. We’re publishers. We’re even increasingly consultants. We’re still designers. We’re independent sources of inspiration and trend scouts in tune with the zeitgeist. We’re content producers and sparring partners. We’re experts on creativity. And communications. Today, communications are what help politicians win elections, CEOs boost share prices and teenagers become millionaires on social media.
The problem is that most of our (potential) customers are unaware that we have these skill sets. They know nothing about our portfolios and make little or no use of existing services. That means completely new competitors have entered the market, offering our competencies and services and winning customers. All the while, our expertise gathers dust.
So are the experts right after all? Are agencies doomed? I imagine that those commentators see agencies as behaving like Wallace Hartley, the famous violinist on the Titanic who continued to play even as the ship sank rather than getting into one of the lifeboats. In his devotion to art, he played on, creating beautiful music and entertainment of a sort but in the process sadly failing to grab his personal exit strategy and survive.
I believe that, unlike the Titanic, agencies won’t go down straightaway. Short-term, situation-specific solutions are not yet our only recourse. Instead, we still have sufficient time to consider long-term, strategic solutions. We are not yet on the precipice. But we must continue to grow, to push ahead with our transformation. No two ways about it — it’s time for a radical evolution. While that sounds less like the fighting talk behind “downfall,” it’s more accurate.
After all, we are capable of doing a whole lot more than what customers and the market credit us with. And we have many more ideas, skills and qualities up our sleeves than most customers are aware of.
One of our biggest hurdles is that opportunities to promote each of our strengths and capabilities are few and far between. In short, we lack a platform where we can showcase our competencies and skills. And another thing: We usually charge out our services by the hour or undervalue them. No economies of scale, no indirect revenues, no IP of our own. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to generate decent turnover — and that’s an all too familiar dilemma.
How can we resolve this impasse and learn from those who do many things better than us? I say, we should look to platforms such as Vice, Complex, OMR or FaZe Clan. Their approach is much better than ours, which is why they’re moving in on territory where agencies and their managers are losing more and more ground — on large tenders for communications accounts, in panel discussions and as experts on corporate advisory boards, institutions and public bodies.
I believe the future of agencies will depend on their ability to build a network or digital ecosystem where they not only address culture, lifestyle, music, sports and social issues, but also give clients insights, publish their own content and innovate.
The way forward is for (tomorrow’s) successful agencies to act as platforms for communications, marketing and creativity. Platforms will also allow them to train the spotlight on their work and achievements. Think of it as a digital showroom. A permanent creative exhibition. A research center open to everyone. So what would visitors find there? Podcasts, specialist articles and thought starters on relevant industry topics as well as self-promoting videos, fashion ideas and tech products.
Most agencies are capable of far more than they’re credited with. They are hotbeds of innovative ideas, campaign hubs in addition to platforms for information and insights. It’s time we brought these capabilities to light for the public instead of leaving them languishing on agency servers.
Here’s the bottom line: The easier our expertise makes our customers’ lives by fulfilling their briefs, the more likely it is that new and existing customers will buy the products in our portfolios. In reality, many marketing departments are virtually paralyzed by the sheer range of communicative possibilities. Which is one reason there is growing demand and greater opportunities for agencies that speak their customers’ language and understand brands.
The best-case scenario is for this approach to generate completely new products and business models. That includes proprietary-format ideas we don’t simply sell to customers once, but market long term in their own right. In other words, an IP factory, not “just” a campaign workbench. Developing our own products from ideas that we might otherwise have “sacrificed” to award submissions. We have to ask ourselves whether we want to be on stage at the Cannes Lions or cutting a deal in the “Lions’ Den” (the German version of the Shark Tank series)? Last but not least, we need to set up our own research & development departments, where employees have the chance to follow through on their own projects, learn and develop new ideas that are unrelated to briefs as well as meet latent customer and — consequently consumer — needs.
As platforms, we agencies would harness, promote and develop our own competencies in a totally different way. We would not only create new business models, but also increase agencies’ value for both our customers and, no less significantly, our employees. That way, we create a new sense of pride in what we do.
I feel confident the game isn’t over. We still have some of our lives left — and we should use them to the full. As long as we buy into a new form of agency. Let’s stop the trash talk — among others and ourselves. If we stop thinking like agencies, our customers will stop paying us as agencies.
This article was initially published on LinkedIn on October 1st 2020. But in the last few weeks I was still thinking a lot about the current situation of advertising agencies and the discussion of some experts believing that agencies are on their last legs. I don´t believe in this “last stand” — our “fate” and “downfall”. In fact I believe that the future for agencies will be bright as long as they manage to transform and act more like OMR, Complex Networks or FaZe Clan instead of acting like a small service provider.
Happy to hear your thoughts and your feedback.
