Advertising Is Dead — Long Live Advertising
The conventional agency model is becoming less and less up-to-date. Now it's time to clean up the industry and adapt to today's needs.
Morning friends!
How are you guys doing? I've already had three glasses of freshly brewed coldbrew today. My fingers roam over the keyboard at light speed. The threads in my head are overflowing and it's impossible to sit still on the chair. Maybe I exaggerated a little.
But I am fit! As fit as I've ever been. I had an ultra-productive week. Ahead of myself is a totally packed weekend. And in my head everything revolves around one of my favourite topics. A topic I can discuss for a long time. Or hold a monologue. Depends on who you ask.
Anyways, today we're talking about the future of advertising agencies. Or perhaps about the dusty present of advertising agencies. Either way, with our changing ecosystem, globalisation and digitalisation, the demands of the economy have changed. Start-ups are the new gold clients. But the renowned agencies fail to adapt to the needs.
It's time to dust off the industry.
Brands Are neither Logos nor Names
Nowadays, the problem for the traditional model is the fast-moving nature of our economy and entrepreneurship. You may have a unique idea. Two weeks after you launch it, there's an identical copy. No matter what. At this point, the heart of the customer decides.
Consequently, this means that already in the initial process of a start-up, it is elementary to build up the brand image. It is no longer enough to advertise a company. An agency has to create the strategy with a company — they build the brand together. This is a shift that is causing the existing advertising industry a lot of trouble. For years, they have been used to creating classic advertisements for a company. Making this change now requires fundamental changes in the structure of any agency.
From painting the façade of the house, you suddenly have to build the whole house from scratch. Definitely a completely different task.
Of course, the big, established companies with the massive advertising budgets will continue to exist. For some time they will still go for classic advertising. The boys club of blue-chip CEOs and chief creative directors of renowned agencies will remain for a while. But what happens when the young talents take over the leading positions? A scenario that will come up. And it will turn the industry upside down.
This Trio Is Living the Future
Nicolas Blättry, Kyra von Mutius and Nils Unterharnscheidt have grasped this problem for quite some time. The trio has thrown their previous careers in the advertising haze overboard and founded their own agency. Actually, their «agency» Partners is not an advertisement agency but a creative consultancy.
Their aim is mainly to advise young, innovative companies. In fact, they have already done so. For example with the luxury delivery service Arive and the fashion platform Highsnobiety.
The three of them learned their craft at conventional advertising agencies. There, they would all have had a bright future ahead of them. Indeed, at the Heimat agency in Berlin, they have already served clients such as Coca Cola or McDonalds. Kyra was also Chief Strategy Officer and Co-Managing Director of the agency — at the age of 29. But all that didn't hold the three back. On the contrary, they have realised that the advertising industry is in a big crisis and needs new, innovative systems.
Nicoas, Kyra and Nils are now responding to this demand. With Partners, they want to help build brands and companies. To the Gründerszene Magazin Nicolas explained: «Instead of painting a chic exterior, we want to shape from the inside».
Spring Cleaning an Industry
Agile working methods are now in demand. It doesn't matter if you're a big agency or a small creative consultancy. With the transformation of our ecosystem, client demand is shifting to a different realm. Traditional advertising is becoming secondary and strategies and brand identities are coming to the fore. And for this, you simply have to work with a company. Or do you want to write a brand identity without knowing how the brand earns its money? Hopefully not.
At the end of the day, this tells us that there is a big change going on in the industry. Logically, this is an opportunity for new innovative and small players. Changes are always the bigger hurdles for well-established, big companies instead of chaotic, small agencies. Thus: Have you always wanted to try your luck in the ominous advertising industry? Today is the time.
To all the elderly ad guys who are still reading along and perhaps frowning. What do you think about this change? Apart from the fact that a Gen-Z with ridiculously little work experience in the ad world is talking very big about the future of agencies. Let me know what you think in the comments, or shoot me a message.
Love,
Pascal
love this and totally agree!