In 2008 Maurice Levy, the Chief Executive of the world’s fourth largest advertising and marketing company, Publicis, dropped a marketing bombshell upon his fellow professionals.

“The very model of our industry is being called into question,” said Levy. “The model today is no longer valid, no longer relevant.”

He was right. The advertising landscape is unrecognisable. The concept of ‘agency’ is at a crossroads.

The CMO Council, surveyed 500 senior marketers across the world and determined:

“Agencies are struggling to evolve as marketing and traditional media go digital in all areas of campaign execution and audience activation.

“There is a power shift from master agency control of accounts to a more digitally empowered client wielding new partner and provider connections.”

Agencies are in desperate need of re-invention so that they can adapt to the new challenges that they face in order to reach out to a new breed of consumer.

So how did it happen?

The introduction of user-generated content changed the implications of the internet dramatically. Technological advancements have radically altered the idea of what the advertising industry is, and what it needs to do to adapt to its contemporary surroundings. The traditional workspace has outgrown the large office tower centred in the middle of a major city.

The internet has morphed into a multi-faceted communication tool (Web 2.0) where conversation spreads out in different directions: customers speak to business; business to customers and customers to customer- social media is born.

The ever-increasing popularity of social media supports the fact that today’s consumer places greater emphasis on word-of-mouth communication rather than traditional advertising means. The democratization of news through blogs, the economic crisis and consequent fall of financial institutions and consequent loss of the consumer’s confidence towards businesses in general are all contributing factors to this phenomenon.

The consumer has more control than ever before, so how should advertising agencies respond?  

“Agencies will not just be competing with other agencies. Allies may become competitors, consumers may become channels, advertisers may become suppliers and agencies may become media owners” (the IPA).

AGENCY 3.0

Agency 3.0 reverses the key restrictions that hinder agencies now- a collection of people in a single place, on a permanent wage, pen-pushing and drifting. Agency 3.0 involves the Crowdsourcing of hundreds of freelancers and independent creatives on a Web platform- leveraging a collective of virtual communities.

Agency 3.0 places a small team of agency professionals together, managing clients, business development and project delivery. One of its main benefits lies in the unconstrained pool of resources captured from across the globe- Houston to Seoul, London to Rio de Janeiro- the opportunities are endless.

With hundreds of untapped creatives available at the click of a mouse, through well-thought distribution of work, a highly complex project suddenly appears far more simplistic. More heads= more productivity. More heads= more diversity. More heads= vastly improved output.

The beauty of Agency 3.0 is in its reflection of social media. The importance of social media is centred in interaction and community, to create discussions, dialogues and debates. Agency 3.0 is the agency equivalent. The best way to invigorate the crowd is to form a model that mirrors the modern day social media beast. Agency 3.0 fits the bill. The old agency model fits the new realities like a square peg in a round hole.

The time has come for advertisers to stop forcing their commercial messages down people’s throats and instead embrace the digital-sphere with a two-way interaction.

Two years after Levy’s stark industry forewarning, the answer has arrived: the future of agency is Agency 3.0.