Recently I have read yet another article on “Agencies Are Dead”.

Hundreds of articles have been written in the past years about the death of the traditional ad agency. Yet, most of them are still around. Richard Whitman writes about the reasons:

Because any good company, no matter what the industry, follows the money. If brands want a million-dollar branding campaign consisting solely of tweets, that’s what the agency will do. If the brand wants to Snapchat its CEO Periscoping a Reddit AMA, that’s what the agency will do.

As an advertising agency only creating TV, radio and print ads you are likely to disappear from this planet (if you haven’t done so already). Or you have to get your shit together and learn all about this modern, fashionable content marketing thing. It has already happened. Agencies have moved on.

Whitman also cites a piece written by Banjo’s CMO Stacey Epstein for Mashable: “Ad agencies and brand advertisers persist in focusing on that perfect 30-minute spot. It’s what they know and what they’re good at, but they’re failing to reach their audience who now spends their time in an entirely different place.”

Richard comments:

To a certain degree, Epstein is right. But many of these agencies that are still stuck in the land of the :30 second (and I’m quite sure she meant second and not minute) TV ad are also forging ahead with marketing programs that incorporate the kind of media that’s being consumed today the way TV was consumed yesterday.

Maybe the advertising agency is not dead at all. Agencies have just become something else – companies that are better suited to today’s media habits and consumption patterns.

Yes, there will always be Super Bowl and Cannes Lions stupidity — but hey, ad agencies are filled with self-centered, egotistical, self-esteem award-craving people who would all curl up into a fetal position if they didn’t get the occasional pat on the back.

So let’s all relax, let them have their Super Bowl ads and their Cannes Lions. In the end, we might see some cool ads or any other form of communication that meets today’s consumer needs and media behavior!

The original article written by Richard Whitman can be found on MediaPost.

What do you think? Will advertising agencies, creating TV, radio and print ads only, disappear?

 

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