If you’re running a small traditional ad agency, do you think you’ll be around in 10 years? According to the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising’s recent report, you’ll have a tough time growing if you’re not prepared for social media and digital communications.

We Are Social pulls together a nice summary of the report. The quote that sticks in my mind is from Steve Henry, the former TBWA\London Executive Creative Director:

“The current agency model needs rethinking because it’s run out of steam. Remember that a lot of digital agencies are ten years old and you have to ask if they’re flexible enough to seize the opportunities on behalf of clients. Many clients are starting to feel that the agency they need doesn’t exist. That’s to say one that understands the mechanics of social networking as well as delivering the upstream strategy and thinking.”

While social media is exploding right now, there’s plenty of opportunity for some of the popular social media sites (Facebook, Digg, Twitter, Delicious, YouTube, LinkedIn, Scribd) to flame out. Remember Friendster? They were the top dog before MySpace took over. Now, Facebook is challenging MySpace.

But regardless of which sites thrive, customers now control the conversations about brands and interruption marketing is disappearing.

Many traditional agencies simply won’t be able to make the transition–it’s too great of a shift in how to approach the marketplace. New digital agencies are sprouting up every week, run by different people with a clear understanding of how to blend in and become part of the person-to-person conversation.

If you’re one of them, this is your wakeup call. It’s time to address the elephant in the room.

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Tags: interactive marketing, social media

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 22nd, 2009 at 9:55 pm and is filed under Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.