Impacts

The agency of the future – Adam Ferrier

Strategy | Comments | Last built on 23 July, 2009

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

Be Sociable, Share!