The Marketing Agency Talk

Here is a strange topic for discussion at the Marketing Agency Talk – does the agency model still work?

Advertising dates very far back. But the most likely start of “modern” advertising the way we know it can be traced as far back as 1600′s. There are posters selling fruits dating from as far back as 1608 (Presbrey, Frank. The History and Development of Advertising. Doubleday, New York: Doran & Co., 1929. p. 114.).

From there, advertising has evolved. In fact, from the times in Europe, to colonial America, to modern times, advertising has been slowly evolving. But you almost never move away from the basic model. Almost all advertisements fall into two fixed categories – selling or awareness (branding). Whether it is an informative ad, or an artistic ad, or a “supermarket” ad, they are all aimed at selling the product/services or at building the brand/product awareness.

Advertising has evolved as new media have emerged. However, the advertising agency has by and large remained the same. Sure, recent times have seen a large movement towards vertical integration and then specialisation. But the basic client-agency model remains intact.

With the fast paced and instant communications world that we live in today, does this agency model still work? Can clients afford to wait a few days while the agency receives a brief, deliberate on it, comes up with a proposal, gets approval, executes the advertising. Well, newsflash, Twitter is 140 characters delivered in seconds. What about Facebook?

Can companies afford to keep the old agency model going in these modern times?