Fast Co. Article re: Future of Agencies

Thought provoking article from Fast Co. I agree with some parts and disagree with
others, and there is certainly some hyperbole.

I disagree that 7 spots for $40k and user generated TV commercials are the
future (don’t worry, you are special). I agree this is “the agency’s to
lose” (depending on how you define agency). There will be a cut in bloat,
but let’s face it big agencies are bloated. There is fragmentation and
clients are increasingly using multiple agencies, but there are pros and
cons across the board, and no one has it all figured out (yet).

The compensation structure is something that needs to change, and it will.
Agencies have to take a unified stance against giving away digital. That is
what we did at Barbarian: this site costs $1mm – take it or leave it (then
again we almost went bankrupt, but hey we stood our ground).

The good news is that smaller shops (like MMB) can adapt quicker than big
ones (the whole “complex society” thing). I have seen it first hand, and
worked with some of the people referenced in this article (one who thought
putting TV commercials in online pre-roll was “figuring out online”). This
is why a lot of good people are migrating to smaller, more nimble shops.

I think the pendulum has swung in one direction (doom and gloom) and will
eventually settle in the middle, but the old way of doing things has changed
and it did take a recession for people to acknowledge the inevitable.
Digital will not replace TV, TV did not replace radio, radio did not replace
print, and crowd sourcing will not replace agencies. But digital and
emerging media are bringing us out of our metaphorical caves and providing
us with exciting new tools to achieve our clients’ goals and channel our
creative talents.

When I see something awesome another agency created I don’t get nervous and
say “shit I would have never thought of that” - I get inspired and say “man
that is awesome – what can we do that has never been done before”. Don’t
worry about which baseball you should try to catch – just grab a bat and
start swinging. And have some fun for Chrissake.