Agencies need to shake up the creative process if they want to compete with their 'frenemies'

"Consumers are more questioning and demanding of brands, have less attention to give and seemingly more places to spend it. Most crucially at the same time as blocking overt marketing messages on the open web they are seemingly happy to give more and more attention, power and data to fewer and fewer closed platforms who control ever greater swathes of unblockable, native inventory."

"But what have we as agencies done to respond to the massive increase in complexity and seeming status quo in budgets? We've rolled ourselves up into big networks that promise the best of everything, but are seemingly not very easy for our clients to work with, or we've run off and splintered ourselves into tiny fragments of specialism that add complexity to agency relationships and put added pressure on budgets."

"I sound really pessimistic about the current state of the agency world, but actually the skills that can be found in abundance in great agencies and great agency people - razor sharp consumer understanding, transformative creative thinking and a bloody-minded tenacity to get things done - have never been more in demand."

Consumers are increasingly questioning and demanding, offering less attention and shifting attention toward fewer closed platforms that capture data, power, and unblockable native inventory. Brands attempt more marketing across more channels with flat or constrained budgets, balancing risk and proven tactics. Agencies have responded by consolidating into large networks that are hard to work with or fragmenting into niche specialists that complicate client relationships and budgets. Consultancies and media owners are encroaching with packaged efficiency models and own-content distribution. Agency core skills—sharp consumer understanding, transformative creativity, and tenacious execution—are in high demand and require refocus and nimble business behavior to reclaim central client roles.

Read at The Drum