Advertising12 Apr 2006 11:24 am
Another 4A’s Conference. Another Year In Advertising.
Yes folks, last week the 4A’s, the American Association of Advertising Agencies, held its latest annual food fest in Scottsdale. Once again the industry slapped itself around a bit. Kinda reminds me of what the newspaper industry is doing to its members.
I don’t know what goes on in big agencies any more. But, I do remember what a hellish place Saatchi & Saatchi had become by the time I left in 1994. Here is what I do know…the smaller shops are doing great work and are not crying into their martinis.
If you have no clue what I am talking about, watch the very smart Ron Berger’s criticism of his industry (not mine) at adage.com.
April 17th, 2006 at 6:39 am
I went to a conference in New York City awhile back entitled “The Future of Marketing.” A lot of the big agencies were present and so were their celebrity honchos. The most entertaining aspect of the conference was listening to all of these big agency folks trying to figure out what to call this “new marketing.” Well, instead of trying to figure out what to call it, we’ve been practicing it here at our small agency in Boise, helping our clients’ brands use change to engage their customers. In part because of this, we’re now doing work with four Fortune 50 brands from our humble little shop in Idaho — and most of that work we’ve taken away from large advertising agencies. While we certainly don’t have it all figured out, we aren’t letting that get in our way of trying to figure it out each and every day, moving forward by embracing change — unlike what I saw at the Future of Marketing conference in NYC.