A seriously good read…

From Fast Company…article here.

“There’s never been a better time to be in advertising…and there’s never been a worse time.”

Some additional excerpts…

Advertising is on the cusp of its first creative revolution since the 1960s. But the ad industry might get left behind.

“Thanks to the Internet and digital technology, agencies are finding that the realization of their clients’ ultimate fantasy — the ability to customize a specific message to a specific person at a specific moment — is within their grasp. It is also one very complex nightmare.”

“The irony is that while there have never been more ways to reach consumers, it’s never been harder to connect with consumers”

“And the Internet has turned what used to be a controlled, one-way message into a real-time dialogue with millions. “Our power has been matched and, in some categories, rivaled by user influence”

“With clients in a tailspin, the very role of agencies is in question. Many CMOs are shunning “agencies of record” relationships — the plum long-term, retainer-based deals that have been the bread and butter of full-service firms. After an agency review last year, Angelique Krembs, marketing director of PepsiCo’s SoBe brand, opted to work with only shops that specialized in digital, PR, or promotional work, excluding all generalist firms.”

Here’s one anecdote from the front lines of the Brave New World:

“GeniusRocket is what an ad agency looks like when it’s stripped of Madison Avenue skyscrapers, high-priced creatives on payroll, sushi dinners at Nobu, and two-week shoots at the Viceroy in Santa Monica. The firm is nothing more than a bare-bones website that crowdsources broadcast-ready TV ads from a pool of loosely vetted talent from Poland to Guam. A CMO accustomed to handing over millions of dollars to an agency for a campaign designed around a single spot can now hand GeniusRocket $40,000 — and get seven spots, each of which will be syndicated on 20 web platforms for tracking, testing, sentiment analysis, and wide distribution. GeniusRocket gleans a 20% to 40% commission, and the rest goes to the creators. “It seemed like an interesting, cost-effective way to get some new creative ideas,” says Marshall Hyzdu, the Kraft brand manager who hired GeniusRocket. “We fell in love with one spot….”

Finally, love this:

“I’ve gone to see all the big cheeses at all these big agencies, and the reaction to us tends to be in one of three buckets,” says Mark Walsh, GeniusRocket’s cofounder and CEO and a proud bottom-feeder. “If the executive is over 57, he says, ‘Thank God I’m getting out of this business.’ If they’re in their forties, they say one of two things: ‘You’re Satan and you’re out to kill me,’ or ‘You’re Satan, but can you help me and not tell anybody?’ ”

Here’s a follow-up, in Forbes