Privately Owned Agencies To Make a Strong Comeback
Speaking at yesterday’s ISBA Conference and expressing his personal rather than corporate view, Garry Lace, CEO of Grey, predicted that the next five years would see many more privately-owned agencies and privately-owned networks.
He said: “The holding companies have traded too much on price and not invested in people and talent, they will not be able to sustain all the networks they run.”
He also saw agencies of the future containing “fewer, better people, hence less fixed cost”. Lace envisaged talent being “bought in” (talent banking has a huge part to play in any network business now).
And with regards to payment, he felt it was often the clients who were not brave enough to address the remuneration model. “It needs a joint effort” to address this. This was also the view of David Patton, vice president of marketing at Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, who said: “The onus is on both client and agency to find a new remuneration model.”
Patton predicted the birth of the “consumer experience” agency. “We have media neutral, now we should have creative neutral agencies. He felt the agency was where he expected to get “the big idea”, but not necessarily the creative solution. He should be free to go anywhere for that. “We should unbundle planning and creative, planning is the most important part, I don’t want to be tied to that agency’s creative department.”
Patton had some strong words for the agency community: “Agencies are failing to keep pace with the consumer. There is a lack of flexibility, speed and diversity, profit consideration and structure are getting in the way of objective advice.”
ISBA: 020 7499 7502 www.isba.org.uk
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