Agencies are getting their nuts squeezed, and guess who’s getting it in the neck (sorry, mixed anatomical metaphor). Outside the UK there’s hardly any investment in planning anyway, and even here most agencies are now seriously under-investing in strategy. I think this is a big mistake.
On the left is my model of the ways in which agencies compete. Historically agency networks competed on the basis of infrastructure and resources, dots on the map, which appealed and continues to appeal to some global clients. Infrastructure is a zero sum game for the big networks, however, and as some agencies, such as BBH, are starting to demonstrate in a digital world dots on the map are much less important.
Organisation and execution is both important and surprisingly difficult to do well, as anybody who has tried to plan in a multi-discipline environment will tell you, but in clients’ eyes it’s a low value activity. If you’ve read Maddie Baxter’s excellent Magic and Logic, then you will know what I mean. Execution is an excellent opportunity for disintermediation, even on a global scale, and companies such as Tag are starting to take execution business away from big networks.
In some senses relationships are everything, and they can be a major competitive strength - which explains the continuing success of account management as a profession - however clients do not value relationships per se and, increasingly, loyalty from the agency is not reciprocated by clients.
Which leaves, guess what, strategy and ideas, as the main ways in which agencies compete in the digital age (it could be argued that strategy and ideas are the same thing, but I will leave that argument for another day). Of course creative ideas are the raison d’être of the business, and highly valued by clients, but there is also big opportunity for agencies that position themselves as strategic powerhouses, not just creative ones, and invest accordingly. Arguably Ogilvy and JWT once had that positioning, BMP definitely did and maybe BBH does now, but come on guys, there’s room for more!
Organisation and execution is both important and surprisingly difficult to do well, as anybody who has tried to plan in a multi-discipline environment will tell you, but in clients’ eyes it’s a low value activity. If you’ve read Maddie Baxter’s excellent Magic and Logic, then you will know what I mean. Execution is an excellent opportunity for disintermediation, even on a global scale, and companies such as Tag are starting to take execution business away from big networks.
In some senses relationships are everything, and they can be a major competitive strength - which explains the continuing success of account management as a profession - however clients do not value relationships per se and, increasingly, loyalty from the agency is not reciprocated by clients.
Which leaves, guess what, strategy and ideas, as the main ways in which agencies compete in the digital age (it could be argued that strategy and ideas are the same thing, but I will leave that argument for another day). Of course creative ideas are the raison d’être of the business, and highly valued by clients, but there is also big opportunity for agencies that position themselves as strategic powerhouses, not just creative ones, and invest accordingly. Arguably Ogilvy and JWT once had that positioning, BMP definitely did and maybe BBH does now, but come on guys, there’s room for more!
Anyway here’s the thing. If you’re a young planner with an important creative brief to write and you don’t have a proper boss; or you are a Planning Director who doesn’t really know what they’re doing; or you run an agency and you want to become a strategic powerhouse; or you’re a client who’s a bit stuck with something, then get in touch with the Planning Doctor because I’m going to help you.
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