Ad wake-up calls from agency insiders

By on October 3rd, 2007 In Social Media

If you’ve always felt that ad agencies are still scratching their heads about what the emerging media will do to their business models (in a good way) read Saatchi-& Saatchi VP, Avi Dan’s courageous analysis on the state of the agency.

His article “Agencies must wake up to a different business model” in Advertising Age, talks of a need to consider more fundamental fixing, rather than the minimal tweaking that’s out of step with the digital environment in which it operates.

Managing a brand today is like running a presidential campaign, where damage control and reaction time are as important as being “on message.” The consumer-generated media, mash-ups and bloggers are competing for control of your brand, and potential disaster can strike at any moment like lightning — whether in toothpaste, toys or a pop star named Britney, and with an instant viral effect.

He calls on CMO’s and agencies to get away from “the social architecture that has been in place since the Industrial Revolution,” citing the emergence of social media as a good example of responding to the huge shifts. He’s not talking about the woolly stuff but about the messy issues of compensation models, intellectual property and outsourcing involved in moving into into the web 3.0 territory.

As for the prickly stuff, intellectual property, the AAAA has a paper on best practices. It doesn’t go deep enough, but it’s a start. Maybe Ari’s pov might spur something. Or maybe not. There are just two comments on his article at Ad Age.

I guess everyone’s still at the Advertising Week slumber party.

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