David Cooperstein [Posted by David Cooperstein]

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We’re in the process of pondering a very important question
in the industry today: what is the future of agencies? Agencies have played
such a crucial role in helping companies market their products and services for
more than a century. Names like McCann Erickson, Young & Rubicam, J. Walter
Thompson
, Ogilvy & Mather, and Saatchi & Saatchi (among others) are practically
household names. There’s even a massively popular and critically acclaimed
television show
capturing life in the golden age of legendary agencies on
Madison Avenue.

Yet the agency model was built during a time when there were
only a handful of channels in which they could push one way messages en masse.
Does that model still work in a time when nearly a quarter of online US adults
now create content online? Many more questions begin to arise as we open Pandora’s
Box: Can one agency do it all? Are holding companies the answer? Can digital
agencies compete with them and lead brands? Do marketers rely on agencies like
they used to? Should marketers consolidate their agencies or de-centralize to
dozens of agency partners? Are technology providers and crowd sourcing
legitimate threats? Where is this all going?

To conduct this research we’re speaking with some of the
most influential agencies, marketers, and service providers. However, what
better way to get a feel for the pulse of the industry than to crowd source it?
So we’re reaching out to get your take on the space. Please give us your
thoughts in the comments section on the question: What is the future of
agencies?

We look forward to your input from the Marketing Leader's perspective (and please try to keep
it to one or two paragraphs)! Since this research is a collaborative report
across roles, this post is cross-posted on our Customer Intelligence, Interactive Marketing, and Customer Experience role blogs, if you want to see what others may be thinking about.