Architects of Perfection: The agency of the future?
Unprecedented change in the marketing communications world is clearly putting agencies and clients under pressure to evolve. Although lots of the old models look broken, Mister Three Sixty doesn’t believe the new ones haven’t fully emerged yet. So what could the agency of tomorrow look like? Well it will still be about smart, creative, likable people. But what roles are required?
First, the people you still won’t be able to do without:
- Charming Client Service Director
- Convincing Strategic Planner: Or maybe a Human Scientist; someone who cares about psychology and biology and behaviour and sociology an’ that but can also work it into a form that other people can work with.
- A Scriptwriter. Specifically a writer versed on longer-form writing, I mean more than a Copywriter here, since where marketing is going requires someone who can think about big narratives, not just spots or executions.
- An Interactive Art Director. The moving visual image will become even more important.
- Technologist. Someone to open doors into new possibilities.
- (Social) Media Relations Expert: Because Earned Media can be effective as hell and pretty cheap too.
I reckon that would be a good start, but to really rock, you’d also need:
- An Experience Designer: So many things are designed without thinking about the people involved (from chairs, to urban centres, to websites). This doesn’t have to be the case.
- A Data Analytics Guru: The data wave keeps growing and if Charlie don’t surf, he ain’t gonna win.
- A Connections Media planner: Someone who can think creatively about how the medium and experience interact, not just a TGI monkey.
- A TV Documentary Researcher: Someone who knows how to weave a great story and get the relevant people and places lined-up to tell it.
That’s it. If Mister Three Sixty doesn’t draw a line somewhere, it would be huge. It should be perfect. On paper…
What do you think? Who has Mister Three Sixty missed from the line-up? Where is the real talent going to be tomorrow?
i think this an exciting post.
Robbie Rae
May 5, 2009 at 2:39 pm
I personally think that some of these roles should and will end up going in-house. For example social media is all about community engagement and with people increasingly engaging with brands online they will expect this relationship to happen with the brand (not agency) as it is simply more authentic.
The role that will increasingly exist is a community engagement manager, someone within the brand makeup that lives and breathes the online (social) space. I see some of the best social media experts of today taking up that role tomorrow.
Jonny Rosemont
May 6, 2009 at 11:49 am
I’m still a fan of the discussion “Oh Mother, would agencies be more efficient without account handlers?” on brandrepublic.com … here in your post you exactly hit the bull’s-eye. One sales man and nine creative heads with a contemporary qualification. Very good percentage by the way.
) Most important skill for all of them should be that they can’t stop satisfying their curiosity. So it’s all about talent and passion.
Sven Visser
May 6, 2009 at 12:37 pm
Interesting… This made me think about the close distance not just between the company and its PR agency but also this second one with the company’s webpage.
Isabel Ramis
May 26, 2009 at 1:10 pm