The State of the Agency

The panelists - a trio running AKQA, Modem and Molecular - made the point that some of the best marketing ideas are coming from their technology departments, not the marketing guys. Once the techies understand what is wanted, they are able to present innovative ideas for achieving those goals.  I found it interesting to hear this perspective from an agency; clearly the industry is evolving.

The point was raised that companies are starting to expect that agencies are able to manage accounts globally, not just in one or two countries.

One panelist mentioned that attracting and retaining good talent has proved to be difficult for the agencies. The other panelists agreed that retention is a key issue.  One of the panelists even offered jobs to members of the audience.

In general, the consensus is that the state of the agency is strong and that hiring and retention problems are nice problems to have.

The panelists agreed that they don’t turn away a lot of work - generally the cause in such a case is the need for serious technology work, like that done by the serious tech companies.