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This post was first featured on Jack Myers’ MediaBizBloggers site

News just hit a few days ago that ZenithOptimedia UK, for many the original home of the modern media agency, is to be believed to split up following a restructure at group level. StarcomMediaVest Group is also rumored to face reorganization in the UK. Besides speculation, nobody really knows the real reason behind the ZenithOptimedia split. We just continue to experience transformative changes in the media/advertising business.

Is the idea of a monolithic agency dead?

Not yet, we still see a lot of consolidation and business models that are stuck in the past idea of being an agency that can do everything.

We need to creatively destruct the idea of a monolithic agency. We need to advance more flexible and fluid models that expand and contract effortlessly, based on client needs. We need to be able to bring in new expertise when needed and drop old expertise when it doesn’t have any value anymore. Agencies need to explore more “free agent” and distributed team models, utilize social technologies to encourage collaboration and co-creation.

The agency of the future

So, what will the agency of the future look like?

· Much smaller.

· Focused on strategy and creative leadership, supported by account management.

· A Chief Marketing Technologist will work as a team with the Creative Director.

· Media Planning and Media Buying will become two separate divisions. Again.

· A small pool of full-time employees and a large pool of free agent experts

The time of McMansion agencies is about to end. It’s about time.