Will Agencies Last

The advertising agency is a pretty old business model. It’s seen some changes over the last 50 years as art directors and copywriters have started to work in teams, planners have been introduced and media departments have broken away. However, these changes have been pretty small and with the exception of media departments moving away most changes have been tweaks. As we’ve talked about previously on IF!, agencies may not be the future as budgets move online and consumers become more creative, the agency and its rigid processes, silos and remuneration models may be too inflexible to deal with client demands.

This week’s Guardian has its very own view of whether agencies are really that essential in the modern era. With some clients deciding that they don’t get enough value from their traditional agencies, they’ve moved the creative product in house.

“And now comes the news that Korean car giant Hyundai is about to go one step further and open a London branch of its agency Innocean, presumably to bring the whole of the Hyundai and Kia accounts in-house. It raises the question, what are external advertising agencies good for? If you were an advertiser without an external advertising agency, what would you and what wouldn’t you miss?”

Will clients who seek good advertising rather than great advertising move their creative functions in house too?