Five Ways Your Ad Agency Will Work In 2011

On the morning of November 17 I got a brief that asked me to write a post titled "Five Ways Your Ad Agency Will Work In 2011" for the Karsh\Hagan blog. And that afternoon, I saw this in Fast Company:

Over the past few years, because of a combination of Internet disintermediation, recession, and corporate blindness, the [advertising] assembly line has been obliterated -- economically, organizationally, and culturally. In the ad business, the relatively good life of 2007 is as remote as the whiskey highs of 1962.

Ouch.

I wasn't surprised by Fast Company's doom and gloom. The article was just a retread of all the Big Scary Death of Advertising stories we've been reading for a few years now. But being boring doesn't make you wrong. The world of 2011 looks nothing like the one in which many of us learned our craft.

In a 2008 interview I did with Scott Goodson on FutureLab, I said the greatest challenge for the marcomm industry was this:

Defining for new clients how we will approach their business problems.

I still think that's true. But while the pitch process remains a bit of a jumble, the agency business model has changed. In 2011, your ad agency will be faster and more innovative than ever before. Here are five reasons why.

1. Collaboration: Today, culture is made with mash-ups. It's about Kid Cudi mixing Christian Bale with LCD Soundsystem. About ideas that build on each other. That's how agencies will be working in 2011. Small teams of people coming together to add fresh thinking to existing work.

2. Content: Social media is great. But brands shouldn't jump into other folks' conversations uninvited. They should start by creating content worthy of conversation. And then listen, engage and refine.
–
3. Play: Ty Montague. Kevin Roddy. Alex Bogusky. Those are three of the biggest names in advertising and in 2010 they all quit their fabulous network jobs to explore the great unknown. Experimentation, play and the freedom to fail. Those are the seeds of creativity and the path to the biggest ideas.

4. Flexibility: To a man with a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. And to an agency with a bunch of specialists with billable hours to fill, every problem looks like it requires the attention of a bunch of specialists with billable hours to fill. To combat this agencies will hire people who have flexible skill sets and similar visions.

5. Platforms: There are fun individual executions. There are powerful integrated campaigns. And then there are flexible, infinite platforms. For instance, Karsh\Hagan's 100 Honest Answers campaign for American Crew has run its course. But the Ask American Crew platform we built underneath it will always be there if they want to use it again. Your agency should be thinking about the long, long run.

If the brief I'd gotten had asked for a sixth opportunity, I would add happiness to this list, and define it as "a blissful childlike state resulting from the act of creation." Because I think ad agencies are much less tied to the 30-second spot than the media would have you believe. There is so much cool stuff yet to be made. And as long as we're making it, we'll be so, so happy. Suck on that, Fast Company.

[Ed. - This post was written by Karsh\Hagan's Matt Ingwalson and cross-posted on his blog and Karsh Connect. It's also posted on The Denver Egotist.]

StrawberryFrog is in London (and just about everywhere else)

Over the past few days, I've started to suspect that I'm being stalked by StrawberryFrog. I look on the Cannes shortlist and there it is. I turn on CNN and there it is. I wonder what's up in London and, now, there it is:

Last year, SF moved headquarters to New York and is moving its European operations to London...

It's no secret that StrawberryFrog has been successful by being smart and ahead of the game. They've been one of the most talked about shops since their inception in 1999. Goodson says, "I think it's fair to say that in today's ever changing market you need to stay entirely agile while remaining focused on delivering innovation, strategic and creative excellence." And that's exactly what StrawberryFrog seems to be doing. I see this as just another smart move on their list of good calls.

We're lucky to have StrawberryFrog founder and CEO Scott Goodson judging the 2008 Denver 50. Norm, Citizen Pictures and I are filming the call for entries now. Look for the video in about four weeks.

Ty Montague and Adam Owett join TD50 judging panel

If you're in the New Denver Ad Club's TD50 Facebook group, you already know that JWT New York CCO and co-president Ty Montague has agreed to join StrawberryFrog CEO and founder Scott Goodson and Modernista! head of planning Gareth Kay on the 2008 TD50 judging panel.

I recently got confirmation from a fourth judge. Adam Owett is currently the Executive Vice President of the Creative Group at SONY BMG Music Entertainment. Before that, he was the Global Creative Director at Grey Worldwide. His job description at Sony reads like this:

Head "everything creative except the music" for all Sony BMG labels... [Including] videos, viral, packaging, online, mobile, in-store, all advertising, some merchandise and media buying/planning.

In other words, he is creating big ideas for a big brand on the biggest stage you can imagine. We're honored to have him join the judging panel.

I'm a guest on Scott Goodson's lunchtime chat

A week or so ago Scott Goodson, the founder and CEO of StrawberryFrog, asked me to do one of his lunchtime chats. I asked him to repeat the question. Goodson's guests are almost always global advertising powerhouses and I wasn't sure if I really fit in. But he confirmed that he wanted the interview, so I went for it. How many times do you get a chance like that?

The intro identifies me as the "founder of the Colorado 50," which isn't quite the whole story. Many people from the New Denver Ad Club worked on the show, like Gregg, Bob and Brian. As I wrote in the chat, "I helped develop a new award show named The Denver 50."

Obviously I talked about Karsh\Hagan, and I mentioned the Cactus OwnYourC campaign, which is a cool example of the work being done in Denver.

You can read the whole interview on scottgoodson.typepad.com.

UPDATE: The interview has been cross-posted at Marketing & Strategy Innovation Blog.

UPDATE: Marketing & Strategy Innovation Blog has been nominated for a Webby. Vote for it.

UPDATE: The Denver Egotist also discusses the interview.

Saving the lives of girls

StrawberryFrog is preparing to launch Mahindra to the United States. During his time in India, StrawberryFrog founder Scott Goodson became involved with a charity dedicated to saving the lives of girls there:

In many parts of India, the arrival of a baby girl calls for mourning rather than celebration. Abandoning them at birth or marrying them off as children is a common practice. Looked upon as huge economic burdens, it is hardly surprising that many Indian families don't see the point in investing in their education...

Successful education of the girl child has been repeatedly acknowledged as an effective mechanism to break this inter generational cycle of poverty, myths, social norms and social evils. Research conducted in developing countries has shown that a literate female population is linked to reduction in population growth rates. On the other hand illiteracy, breeds ignorance and fear and only increases her vulnerability to be exposed to lifelong abuse and exploitation.

Visit the Nanhi Kali website. Consider making a donation. And at the very least join the Facebook group to show your support.

The other reason creatives stay up late

You'd like to think the late nights ad folk are famous for are just a by-product of our undying passion for the work. But that's only half the story. Alongside desire, there's fear, as Bart Cleveland explains:

The advertising industry is a great white shark, always feasting, yet never satisfied. You had better get better if you want a career that lasts for more than a few years...

The cause of the problem for many seniors in this business is that too many have avoided committing themselves to growing in responsibility or ability.

The ability that many senior-level people lack these days is Web skills. And there's been no shortage of people predicting doom.

Yesterday, it was our own Denver Egotist:

Being in such high demand, are these developers simply moving to more established landscapes, or is Denver simply a microcosm of a national drought?

On the national level, there was Brian Morrissey, quoted here via Scott Goodson:

Clients are placing more emphasis on mastering social media but find their agencies ill equipped to help them succeed in that space, according to a new survey.

And there was Benjamin Palmer worrying that ad agencies aren't up to the Web 2.0 challenge:

Everyone talks about how the industry is changing, nontraditional media, fragmented audiences, blah blah blah. It's true, it's progress, and it's fantastic. It is also obviously scaring the crap out of traditional ad shops.

I see this meme over and over. And I'm never quite sure who these "traditional ad shops" are. Maybe it's because I've never worked at a Madison Avenue monolith; I imagine they'd be harder to evangelize. Both of the agencies I've had the pleasure to work for in the past four years embraced Web 2.0. And when I write "embraced," I mean, "threw our arms around it and kissed it like Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams making out in The Notebook."

At TT&D, we built the first social network for iPhone users, launched a UGC contest for WOW! and asked Colorado to build us a state activity map for Colorado Farm Bureau Insurance. At Karsh\Hagan, we're enabling student-generated content for Regis University, launching McDonald's film on YouTube, and we've got a few new projects upcoming, one of which will be here on May 15.

I know these aren't quite Barbarian Group-level technology applications. I'm not trying to go toe to toe with Palmer creatively. But the "agencies genetically can't get the Intertubes" meme sounds like something invented by interactive shops. And I'm not buying it. Because as Palmer himself writes:

[I]t's not that hard to adapt, if you really want to.

In fact, ad agencies have a better 2.0 mindset than some interactive agencies. (Although many have been slow to realize their advantage.) As Ian Schafer wrote:

[I]f the agency doesn’t have a full media/creative/public relations offering, they probably won’t be able to have the right (and unbiased) experience and best practices to succeed in social media.

The answer isn't as simple as building a better Internet offering. It's about integration. Every day, I see the best Denver agencies staying up late, developing the ability to create great work across integrated media.

It makes me get all weepy. Just like that scene in The Notebook.

Scott Goodson and Gareth Kay to judge 2008 Denver 50

A few days after the 2007 Denver 50, I got a call from Kevin Roddy's assistant. She wanted to confirm that I was still on for drinks with Kevin that night.

In Manhattan.

The clicking sound she heard was me jumping to my laptop to see if it was possible to get an immediate flight from Denver to LaGuardia. It wasn't, and I reluctantly informed her that she'd gotten me confused with someone else.

Ninety-eight percent of the people in America don't understand why that story is funny. For the two percent that do, I have news.

Scott Goodson and Gareth Kay have given an early thumbs-up to the idea of judging the 2008 Denver 50.

Scott Goodson is the founder and CEO of StrawberryFrog. He's only judging The Denver 50 and D&AD this year. His blog is scott goodson's writings. He was profiled in USA Today. And here's a link to all of Agency Spy's articles about StrawberryFrog.

Gareth Kay is the head of planning at Modernista!. His blog is brand new. He's joined the Denver 50 Facebook group. And here's a link to all of Agency Spy's articles about Modernista!.

We're chasing two more judges whose names will make ad geeks get all wobbly.

The 2008 deadline will be in August, so we're still a good six months out. But it looks like the Denver 50 will again have a judging panel that'd make the One Club jealous.

Tuesday morning concurrence

• TD50 is one month away. Get your tickets. And join our Facebook group.
• Scott Goodson thinks that copywriters are more important than ever. I concur.
• Andy Bosselman is psyched for the Denver International Film Festival. I concur.
• The Denver Egotist is high on Texture. And I concur.