THE DIGITAL BLUR

The media agency and holding company portfolio landscape is changing before our eyes.

I’ve said it many times before – the competitive necessity for agencies to offer a more complete suite of services, or collaborate to do so is paramount to the success of the agency and the clients they service. The shift of importance to the media agency over the last 5 years or so has created an awkward situation for the holding companies, who are essentially managing a portfolio of complimentary agencies. The shifting nexus that once laid firmly with the full service creative shops has slowly moved to the media agencies, creating a new level of competitive issues for the holding companies.

The most recent announcement of MindShare Interaction, the digital arm of the largest media group in the world (MindShare/Group M), is the latest in a string of quiet agency evolution that first included the introduction of creative and technology services into the digital media agencies, and now has spawned traditional creative services as well, infringing on what has historically been the coveted ‘meat & potatoes’ of the full service shops. From online creative & web development, to TV production and branded entertainment, the media agencies are poised for catapulting success for one main reason – their Datanomic position.

Marrying this more complete service offering with the application of data analytics is the key to creating efficiency and effectiveness for clients. The scale of the agency and therefore the scale of aggregate data and subsequent insight generated, combined with a complete ability to execute, is (in my humble opinion) the holy grail we’ve been waiting for – or at least the beginning of it. Every campaign is only as strong as its weakest link. In this new media age, he who lacks the ability to apply deep sets of data at all levels of the organization and agency processes becomes the weakest link.