This is not an article debating whether digital or traditional agencies will dominate the landscape of future advertising. This is not an article predicting the death of advertising agencies. This is an article about the mutant super-child that the two models have started to birth. And the necessity for the industry as a whole to adapt and move forward in a new and rapidly converging world.

Chris Staples wrote a great piece called Dominant Agency Models Face Extinction. In it, he talks about how days are numbered for both traditional and digital agencies.

It starts with this quote from Mark Comerford: “Digital will fuck you up.”

Staples then explores some of the problems and obstacles both the traditional and digital models face.

Let’s elaborate on some of the root issues, and explore how both brands and agencies can overcome them.

The diagnosis
There are three equally important parts to any successful advertising campaign: Strategy, Creative, and Execution. This isn’t new thinking, but it is something that seems to be missed from time to time by brands and agencies alike. You’ll see campaigns that have sound strategy and execution, but bad creative. Or great creative and execution, but completely lacking the strategic component. If you have ever seen an ad, spot or microsite that you found compelling, but were left wondering, “What was the point of that?” then you know of what I speak.

When it comes to the new digital landscape, the three components are having an uncommonly difficult time getting together.

In traditional agencies, the strategy and creative may be sound, but the digital execution often falls flat.

In the digital agency, in general, the creative is solid, and the execution can be brilliant, but there is little attention paid to long-term strategy.

In other words, traditional models produce good strategic thinking, but are short on tactics. Digital agencies are good tacticians, but poor strategists.

This is important. The key to being excellent in all channels is making sure that – in all channels – the Strategy, Creative, and Execution are connected and well thought out. The strategy may inform the creative, and then on to the execution.

The best campaigns, however, are ones where all three components inform each other: strategists, creatives, and production working together to solidify the strategy, creative and tactic.

The wrong way
These two models of agencies (traditional and digital) have been compensating for their deficiencies in a similar and, ultimately, flawed way.

Traditional agencies, faced with the reality of the digital revolution, have done two things: The have purchased “digital shops,” or they have hired on digital “experts.”

Conversely, digital agencies who are trying to break into the traditional world hire on traditional “experts” to help them bridge their prospective gaps.

There are some pretty obvious problems with this methodology.

Case 1: Traditional shops buy digital arms:
In this instance the digital shops generally play second fiddle to their traditional counterparts. Briefs come in with the idea and strategy already baked in, and the digital arm executes against them. In this model, the digital specialists are handcuffed, and more important, never get exposure to the strategic side of advertising. The result is often poor execution due to strategic or creative limitations.

Case 2: Traditional and Digital agencies hiring specialists:
Again, Chris Staples has a good take on this case at Applied Arts, One ad agency veteran makes the case for a Third Way:

“In many of the larger networks, there was (and there still remains) a thinly-disguised paternal attitude towards the new digital offspring. Key decisions and the “big idea” were closely guarded by the core agency team of planners, account people and creatives. As more and more of their clients’ budgets fled to digital, this power relationship started to buckle and strain. If digital divisions are controlling the majority of the budget, shouldn’t they control the big idea as well? . . . Under the current system, clients are forced to deal with multiple project managers to create an integrated campaign. Having 10 people around the table inevitably causes in-fighting and inefficiency.”

When you have an agency that has a lot of specialists at the table, there can often be struggles deciding how to allocate budgets, and who should lead a project. This can result in watered down executions, both on the traditional and digital side.

The prescription: a new structure
Generalists often have a specialty, but have a deep understanding of all the channels that can be used in a campaign. The easiest route to generalists is through the production end. Producers and Project Managers can and will tackle any execution in a similar fashion regardless of medium. Therefore it is easiest to train them to work in the multiple channels. While good producers understand the media the are using, they do not have to understand how a camera operates or how to code a website. The naturally rely on their team’s expertise to fill in the knowledge gap. Because of this, producers tend to be the first to become generalists or, as I like to call them, “media agnostics.”

A few agencies (very good ones at that) have moved to an Executive Producer model. Where there is one lead producer, who is a generalist, leading execution on a client’s business. But we can take this further.

Generalists on top
Think of the new agency model as similar to the medical industry, with the client as the patient. All patients have an overseeing physician, usually called a GP or General Practitioner. When a patient goes to the doctor with a foot irritation, for example, they go to the GP. The GP will do an initial diagnosis and then refer the patient to the appropriate specialist, in this case either a podiatrist, or a dermatologist.

If the patient went directly to the podiatrist, there is a chance they would be misdiagnosed, because the podiatrist thinks almost exclusively about feet. Same can be said about the dermatologist. The GP is an essential part of the process because they look at the problem holistically and determine the best course of action to help the patient.

Translate this to the Agency. You want the generalists to be the primary drivers of the client’s business. Only then can you ensure that you are prescribing the right solution to achieve the client’s objectives. The specialists are still important. After the course of action is decided, you want to ensure that the specialists are the ones executing against the strategy and creative.

How to become or find the media agnostic
The differences between traditional and digital are not the obstacle in becoming media agnostic. Traditional creatives deal with multiple media all the time. You will have a hard time convincing me or anyone else that print and broadcast are the same. However traditional creatives work in these multiple medias all the time with relative ease. The key to them doing this is they don’t need to understand the intricacies of the various media they work with. Generalists in their own right, they rely on their line producers, directors, print producers, design teams, and studio artists to understand the specialized details of what they wish to accomplish.

People who are media agnostic are people who are immersed in the media they wish to work with. Because of this you will find a lot of media-agnostic young people.

I grew up on a steady stream of television, radio, gaming magazines, video games, and the Internet. But in order for the upcoming generations of advertisers to stay media agnostic, educators and those of us in the industry must make sure they are exposed to and allowed to explore all the media we use. We must be cautious not to silo them as they enter the industry.

But the young are not the only source of media agnostic advertisers. If you are traditional, and you wish to be media agnostic, live the media. Get a Twitter feed, use Facebook, read blogs (like this one), look at and explore the great digital work that is out there. Go to digital conferences like FITC and Flash Forward.

If you are digital, read Creativity and Ad Age. Stop skipping past the commercials when you PVR your shows. And really pay attention to the various print ads and billboards you see. The quickest and most surefire way to becoming media agnostic is to foster a genuine interest in all things advertising, design, and digital. Easy right?

Post-mortem
It has become clear that both the traditional and digital agency models are failing. The evidence of that is the lack of great integrated campaigns. They really are few and far between. That being said, I believe we are on the verge of a new resonance in advertising. More and more advertisers and clients are becoming less and less afraid of digital. As this happens, more and more agencies are adjusting their models to better support their clients.

It’s those of us who make the transition first that will be poised to lead the industry through this brave new world. And unlike our counterparts in other industries, such as music and film, digital won’t “fuck you up.”