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Founder, The Quills / Freelance Copywriter & Creative Director / Founder, Sleeping Giants (Nobel Prize Nominee)
The advertising model is breaking. It's not because agencies have been doing too little. It's because they've been doing too much. I just saw an article today in Ad Age that agencies are rebranding as "creative consultancies" or "marketing accelerators", which obviously isn't going to fool anyone, but the idea that "agency" has become a loaded term is real and it has nothing to do with the label. It really has to do with the fact that agencies have become synonymous with overcharging, layers of management and upselling more and more offerings clients don't need and aren't asking for. When I got into advertising, you became known for something. An agency could be great at TV. A creative could be an incredible art director. A consultant could be phenomenal at UX. Today, that is no longer the case. Agencies and holding companies (and individuals), in an effort to vacuum up as much cash as possible, have tried to become experts in everything everywhere all at once. To that end, they've ensured that they are the very best at exactly none of it. And clients can tell. Especially when budgets get tight and shit gets real. There are approximately 12034727 million ways to market products and services right now and it would be impossible for anyone to be great at every single one, let alone, like, 3 of them. And yet, holding companies are trying. You can't be exceptional at TV and social and PR and VFX and also try to beat Silicon Valley at AI all at the same time. The same phenomenon applies to individuals in our industry, who do this, too. How many times have you seen "interdisciplinary" or "multi-faceted storyteller" on here? It makes it nearly impossible for anyone to actually know what to hire them to do. We have all generalized our way out of working on specifics. In fact, over the last year and a half of The Quills, I've heard that same complaint over and over from customers. The "everything model" doesn't work for them, so they come to us for the very best writing. Not design. Not motion graphics. Not apps. Writing. And that's what we give them. In a variety of forms, yes, but largely, yeah, just writing. And, if I may say so, we are fucking great at it. Look, this isn't convenient for everyone. I'm not deluded enough to think that agency networks and holding companies are going to scale back their offerings just to be specialists. It doesn't make a lot of sense when you've got so much overhead. Plus, when you're a public company, you have enough cash to try to buy your way to generalization. But I do think, with the sheer number of jobs there are to accomplish now in marketing, and the staggering number of incredible minds currently outside the four walls of agencies, there is an amazing opportunity to, once again, do one thing really well and absolutely crush it. Or you can change your label to "marketing accelerator" and see if that works.
The pendulum swings back and forth. Remember when clients had digital agencies that only built websites and made Flash banners? Below-the-line agencies? Above the line agencies? Promotional or shopper marketing agencies? Clients finally got tired of dealing with a half dozen (or more) agencies and wanted consolidation. Now they're seeing the downside of consolidation - everything you listed above. So the pendulum will swing back to specialized talent for a while, until the cycle repeats itself all over again.
Isn’t the real problem for agencies that many clients now want to do much of this themselves?
Some solid points here. I 100% the word agency is loaded with the most negative connotation (self inflicted too), I think the issue goes back to genuinely solving problems for clients/companies etc instead of offering every single arsenal in the hopes of 'landing' a project. It's almost like the frame of mind of (some) agency folk to pull out all the bells and whistles nab that client which will enable them to create 'award winning work' then it's on to the next. Doing 1-3 things which agencies hand on heart believe they can show true value through by solving creative/strategic problems (could) help remedy the situation. Comes back to intention of the whole model.
You can get rich (and industry famous) being great at TV. You cannot do that by being good at mobile push messages. Or Homepage redesigns. Or... The fact that there are approx 1,2034,727 million ways to market products and services means that slicing and dicing a few of those ways into a manageable, cohesive, sensical, marketable, and profitable package is kinda hard. It's particularly difficult when you consider the fact that the primary way we all get new business is through word of mouth and personal relationships - which doesn't scale very well.
First line says it all
I think the problem is simpler. Advertising was in a golden age when companies only thought about manufacturing and sales, in a time when we had a handful of TV channels that we all sat on the sofa to watch. CEOs now face operational, digital, environmental... transformation to create a modern, competitive business. They are going to be more circumspect and zero-based about budgets for advertising.
The days of agencies being able to be a generalist, delivering value to clients AND having a sustainable business model is over.
Spot on. I've seen the rise and fall of the mega agencies that try to do everything and sell their clients ALL THE SERVICES. I think it makes sense to be good at one thing and do it well. Unfortunately "marketing" isn't just one thing. Just ask the overworked marketing managers around the world that hear 1.5M different hats. What type of copywriting does your team specialize in?
Some clients will want one partner. And perhaps this is a CFO mandate to easily keep track of spending. And some will want to work with specialists - if it’s cost-effective. It’s nice to be niche, though. We know we’re delivering the goods cos we live and breathe it.
Freelance CD Art Director | Founding Partner: The Avail List + Allyship & Action
4 个月I am with you on the model breaking. Now that agencies are becoming a “catch all”, they are hiring too much staff full time to fill in the gaps and then piling people on retainers in order to justify cost. It’s bloating the budgets and clients aren’t buying that the excessive itemized receipts are worth the investment. (Because they are not.) Hot take: We now have a ton of senior creatives floating in the freelance ether. I have started to see more brands going hunting for strategic creatives to pitch campaign work (independently of an agency or in-house) and then asking them to find a production company to produce, avoiding the heavy agency fees. I think this is because clients are starting to care just as much about who they’re paying for as what they’re paying for. Forecast: Agencies build freelance networks that transparently show who they have access to. Gone are the days where agencies should be fearful to put a freelancer head shot in their pitch deck for campaign work. Break out the long term contracts and the weekly rates and start bringing your contractors close. And if you’re a newer freelancer reading this, it’s probably time you think about getting an S Corp now.