Great report by the Winterberry Group from New York on the impact of the consumer and digital realities on the advertising agency over in the U.S.
Definitely worth a read. One of the key findings was this:
The prevalent “agency holding company” model is poorly equipped to provide the organizational agility and cross-channel service offering that today’s marketers demand
In my conversations with marketers this is a major talking point, particularly with those that have had imposed upon them a 'global agency' deal from their own HQ. One recounted the story when one agency tried to pitch for this client’s business, not knowing that their holding company cousin was an incumbent supplier to this marketer. "It’s as if they don’t talk to each other, let alone offer any integrated solution” he sighed.
In the Winterberry Study, they found 13% of respondents believed Holding Companies are able to effectively cross-sell their services across agency lines, whilst 85% of respondents believed that Holding Companies provide no real benefit to clients. Oh and the sample of 70 respondents for this study were taken from the agency world itself.
If the agency staffers themselves cannot see the value of such huge conglomerates, expect to see more and more set up smaller operations offering clients a more intimate service.
citizenbay is connected to the Comms Collective, a group of very experienced individuals that covers brand strategy, communications strategy, content delivery, digital strategy, music platform development, customer service training, research, retail real estate, CSR management and store design amongst other areas. No overlap of roles, no tension with who is lead…just some experienced people who trust and like each other and want to do great stuff for our clients (which include agencies too)…
In the era of cross-channel service…will small be beautiful?