We're not an "ad agency."

Marketing Transformation Company. Business Transformation Company. Creative Transformation Company. Disruption Company. Connected Experiences Company. Digital Experience Company. Customer Experience Company. Creative Technology Company. (These are all real-- you guess who).

At some point, saying “we’re an ad agency” became serious taboo.

As if the word “ad” connoted some antiquated, quaint, decrepit form of what the internet, AI, NFT and (insert shiny new object here) are doing to the world and consumers.

In a new, boundless digitalized world, the word “ad” has come to mean small, static and stupid. And “ad agency” has come to mean a company making said small, static and stupid things.

But for me, the industry’s allergic reaction to the term reveals a deeper, more insidious affliction.

Simply, more often than not, we forget what we do.

When your aunt asks what you do for work, which answer do you think she understands?

“I work at an ad agency” or “I work at a Connected Experience Company?"

Yet, we insist on using the term no human understands.

We impose how we want to see ourselves on humans who could care less.

Ask your aunt about the last time she clicked on a banner ad and you soon realize that much of the sophisticated technology, AI and light-speed programmatic trading justifying the fancier "transformation/digital/experiential" label manifests as trash she actively ignores or avoids.

It takes a lot to make a great ad including all the great media, technology and "transformation" required to bring it effectively to the real world.

There's no shame in it.

But by definition, a company who resists its identity is a company that limits its ability to embrace the very simplicity, empathy and good humor it requires to persuade humans too busy to care about our fancy words.

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