Madison Avenue Under Attack!

When I thought about these two resources that I was about to reference, I thought about a story I read in college.

“No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man’s and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinized and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinize the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water.”

So how does H.G. Wells relate to what’s happening on Madison Avenue? Just as the Martians were watching man go about his daily life, clients are constantly evaluating in their back of their heads the performance of their agency/agencies, while their agency evaluates themselves through a diverse ensemble of strategy, tactics and creative. Building on this throught, AdAge released an article discussing a Forrester study that showed that ad agencies aren’t delivering upon the work they’re doing for their clients. The report, titled “Help Wanted: 21st Century Agency” — queried about 140 agency executives and marketers. Not only did they find that they wouldn’t recommend their agency, but that it was too difficult to measure their return. In recent years, large agencies that for decades dominated the scene have been under assault from much newer and leaner shops that promise channel-agnostic thinking. Peter Kim, a senior analyst at Forrester, states “Agencies who have traditionally held the lead relationship aren’t up to speed when it comes to things like consumer-generated media or digital.” So what agencies is he referring to? Well if you have $279, check out the report here on Forrester’s website.

This thought process was sparked as I reviewed old Research Briefs from Mediapost. The one in mind titled, “CMOs Look for Blended Agencies for Contemporary Marketing”, a study done by senior marketing executives at Evalueserve for Sapient. Here are some of the major points in this study:

• Over 50% of Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) believe that traditional, large advertising agencies are ill-suited to meet online marketing needs
• 49% of survey respondents believe that traditional advertising firms have difficulty thinking beyond traditional print and TV media models
• Fewer than 10% of those polled seek to partner with large advertising agencies for their online marketing
• 68% prefer to work with multiple agencies, in order to derive the benefits of specialization

The study revealed that the six most important factors to a CMO when choosing a marketing partner are (in order of importance to aggregate respondents):

• Quality of Creative Content
• Innovation and Strategic Value
• Price/Cost
• Sophisticated Analytics and Measurement Systems
• Proficiency in Emerging, Interactive or Digital Media
• Traditional Print, Offline and Media Buying Services

These are all points that we are constantly measuring ourselves against on a daily basis, managing campaigns for clients, executing digital strategies and assessing which communication channel is the most effective. If we are to truly be seen in the right light by our clients, shouldn’t we just learn to work together as agencies? Do you think Madison Avenue is scared of little agencies like us or are they willing to leverage our specialties to add value to big brand integrated marketing campaigns? Maybe they’ll just buy us all up and we’ll all get absorbed back into the Matrix.