New Agency Models.

Advertising is not what it used to be. Media is changing, seemingly by the second and the consumer is evolving and becoming more complicated. Ads are popping up everywhere, and sometimes we might not even be able to recognize them as ads at all. With the culture of the world developing in so many new directions, traditional advertising agencies are faced with a decision: how does one evolve an agency to fit the future of the industry?

“While the incoming tide of consumer control and wave after wave of media fragmentation have left many large broadcast-dependent ad agencies looking slothful, defensive and ill-suited to marketer’s needs, a new generation of shops proves change can be opportunity” (Bloom). What Jonah Bloom discusses in his article is what is considered to be a movement contrasting the industry “sloths,” which are unofficially they “JWT’s” and “Grey’s” of the world. This movement is led by smaller agencies such as Amalgamated, Anomaly, Mother, Nitro, StrawberryFrog, Kaplan Thaler Group and TAXI. Each of these “hot start-ups” have sprung up and have held off from defining themselves with what Bloom refers to as a “meaningless brand statement.” In addition, these agencies have a small number of employees and are creatively driven, but they manage massive accounts that range from Coke, Miller and McDonald’s to Unilever, Verizon and Masterfoods (Bloom). The following is a spot done by TAXI for Viagra. TAXI is small, innovative and fresh, but are they a model to adopt for the future?




Any ideas on what the agency of the future looks like? Small and creative? Brand-centric? I have a few that I'll look at coming up, but I want to know what you think.

Here is the link to the Bloom Article: http://adage.com/article?article_id=45259