Show 137 24th Jan 2011

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Permalink Reply by Steve Wax on January 30, 2011 at 3:20pm

This is a great episode. But there's a lot to talk late in the podcast by your esteemed guests (hi, Alan!) about a new model for working with agencies. A couple people discuss CMO or lead agency as "contractor", in the builder sense. As in someone who pulls in all the various specialized disciplines. Arguing from analogy is a faulty practice, but...somehow no one ever pointed out that when you build a house you start with an architect, not a contractor.

And I think the best agencies have enough strategic smarts to pull this off -- dare I posit as examples BBH and Goodby. The issue is, as the Bob and company point out, who's the architect these days?

Mark D'Arcy from T/W argued at an ANA creative conference recently that the overall creative direction, read architecture, is coming from CMO's.

I don't agree that that's the best solution, but it is happening by default. Some of the more adventuresome CMO's, like Mark-Hans Richer from Harley, are pulling this off. But I think agencies should be raising their thinking again -- in a time when both architecture and contracting are key issues (you can't design if you don't understand the executional & delivery disciplines) it's extraordinarily difficult for anyone to fulfill both roles.

The answer? God only knows. Let's wait a couple years for the answer. It's 2000 all over again in the ad biz.

Happy no-holiday,

Steve Wax
Campfire

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