Future of Advertising II

by mikekarnj on March 16, 2007

To continue the conversation from this post. I came across Scott Goodson’s (founder of Strawberry Frog) blog where he posted his recent presentation at the Future Marketing Summit in NYC.

He talks about three new models for the future – new agency model, new client model and a new world model. I’ve pulled some of my favorite quotes and ideas out of the presentation.

So the new agency model has to move the value of our industry away from execution and back to ideas. Firstly, by demonstrating and standing up for the value of ideas. And secondly, by outsourcing execution.”

This is very similar to the Naked Communications model. While working in the London office, I noticed that Naked really pushed ideas over execution. In fact, one of the main things that sets them apart from other companies is that they do not have a vested interest in execution. Naked was not tied to producing TV commercials or interactive websites. Instead they came up with a big idea and outsourced the execution to companies that they partnered with for production.

The thing that really stuck out was the new world model.

“And if we all work together to generate ideas that create more involved, more meaningful cultural connections, which drive business decisions that create more involved meaningful consumer relationships which feed back into companies as a virtual circle of interactivity that can leverage the company’s position to identify and effect relevant…social, environmental, world change – well who wouldn’t want to be a part of that?”

Amen.

  • Brian Chou

    On the idea vs execution trade-off, is this trend just cyclical? If the industry leaders move away from execution to idea generation, outsourcing everything else, seems the day could come back around again when the client wants the one-stop shop; when the inefficiencies of finding niche specialists outweigh the creative “wow factor.” Granted, an agency generates more clout by first becoming an idea factory and absorbing execution capabilities later, instead of vice versa.

    And I agree that powerful ideas can change culture, but businesses generally don’t act on ideas unless…well, unless those ideas can be linked back to grow bottom-line profits. If it takes future profits to get the client business owner to okay current budget for an idea’s execution, but the idea’s “profits” are more focused on intangible (and often immeasurable) gains in cultural and customer relationships (that take an unpredictable amount of time to realize), how does the industry close the sale? What variables can the industry measure that will not only speak to client C-suite execs, but also be important to their company’s stake/shareholders? That’s where it becomes important to have an agency made up of the creative and the quantitative — the “Naked McKinsey’s”, the MA/MBA — isn’t it?