The agency of the future – Adam Ferrier

by Mark Pollard on July 23, 2009 · Comments

in Strategy

Guest post by Adam Ferrier (@adamferrier), Managing Partner, Naked Communications (Sydney). I’ve asked a few people with a different take on things to pen their thoughts about the agency of the future (read Mumbrella’s Tim Burrowes’ thoughts here). Enjoy Adam’s ideas below.

According to Darwin’s theory of evolution, The Agency of the Future will look pretty much like the best agencies around at the moment. So let’s take a few of these and see where the world is heading.

Three of the better agencies in Australia currently are BMF, Three Drunk Monkeys (3DM), and Host. Internationally Crispin Porter is the stand out. So here are 10 things you’ll see in the ‘Agency of the Future’ if it takes the best from the best today:

1. Works bloody hard (3DM and Crispin)
2. Knows its knitting and has a business model that either puts strategic thinking front and centre (Host and BMF) or doesn’t offer it
3. Has a culture of problem solving not ads (all)
4. Creates culture as it builds brands (all)
5. Builds itself into a brand (Crispin)
6. Has nice people, not wankers running the place (all)
7. Doesn’t get caught up with who is and is not a ‘creative’ (?)
8. Knows how to make money (3DM)
9. Gets paid for ideas, not just executions (?)
10. Builds its own properties/brands/media-space and becomes its own client

The days of wondering what the agency model of the future will be are numbered as the market will fragment further, allowing for many various models to exist, all of whom can survive side by side offering different services to clients. However, the single biggest factor that leads to success for the agency of the future – hard work.

If you’d like to read more stuff by Adam, start by reading about his undercover visit to AMI. It’s an excellent read.

Photo courtesy rustyalaska.

If you enjoyed the read, please leave a comment. Feel free to follow me on Twitter

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Tagged as: Agency business

  • Nicely done Adam.

    A couple of quick questions though, not just for Adam but for everyone reading: with an increasingly fragmented agency market aren't we likely to see some agencies try to consolidate many offerings onto their rate card?

    And related to this, in a not-too-distant future with many different fragmented agency models, how do we begin to tackle the elephant in the room - the challenge clients face in managing their portfolio of agencies and getting agencies to play nicely with each other?

    Running an integrated strategy across proliferating agencies, a strategy which includes multiple tactical executions in the shorter-term and perhaps a longer-term social strategy, is hard enough already. Is it likely to get even harder given the possible future you present here?
  • "Gets paid for ideas, not just executions (?)" - This is something that I would like to learn more about. Its incredibly important.
  • randomreader123456789
    I particularly like comment" 7. Doesn’t get caught up with who is and is not a ‘creative’ (?)"
    There has been and still is an 'us and them' mentality between creatives and 'non' creatives in a large number of agencies primarily driven by the creatives themselves.

    Wondering out loud, I can't help but believe that unless this divide is broken down, then creatives in the 'agency of the future' will be traded like commodities more so than they are now. We can see the beginnings of this every time an agency 'moves' on creatives to re-energise themselves as oppose to providing the tools to keep the relationship fresh and creatives creative so to speak
  • Some great thoughts here and the tip of the iceberg IMHO.

    I'd add these traits:

    11. highly flexible and responsive.
    - online, it's all about real-time search. Things move as fast as a tweet or status update.
    12. hugely focussed on ROI.
    - if your client isn't getting their bang for their buck, they'll go elsewhere. Loyalty is as good as your last result.
    13. modular.
    - if your agency doesn't have the talent, contract it in. Some of your best needed talent works from home looking after family etc. It's all about hiring the best and keeping them happy. Obviously agree to targets and regular meetings.
    14. Transparent and open.
    - open to ideas from anywhere.
    15. Reward people for sharing and contribution.
    - Reinforces all the necessary behaviours outlined above.
    16. Entrepreneurial and innovative
    - the agencies of the future will be more risk savvy to try new things to establish a leadership role in their industry and their clients industry.
    17. Educational
    - the agencies of the future will empower their clients to become more involved in new marketing channels. Why? because they won't be as successful in their campaigns if they weren't.
    18. Faciliator
    - the agencies of the future will facilitate the conversations between brands and their clients

    Thanks for the great post.
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