Forrester have just released a new report, The Connected Agency, which anyone interested in what agencies will look like in 5 years time should read (it's free, but you need to register first). Brian Morrissey sums it up:

In Forrester's view, a simple fact is driving the need for wrenching change in how advertising agencies are structured: consumers increasingly do not trust marketing messages. Instead, they rely on advice from friends and others in their various communities to make product decisions, while using tech tools to tune out ad messages they deem irrelevant.

Simon Andrews, Digital Chief Strategy Officer at Mindshare, also comments:

Being a factory dedicated to producing 30 second commercials, websites, banners and buttons or mail packs is not a viable business in an age where consumers are AdAvoiders and media is evolving so fast.

Update: Peter Kim has rounded up the reaction to the report.

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Ian Darby on Agency Republic's recent loss of the O2 online media account to ZenithOptimedia:

the O2 decision is clearly indicative of improved digital resource at mainstream agencies. While cost might be driving the move, it shows that media agencies have upped their game sufficiently to benefit from the possibilities of consolidation. As a result, there are now very few online accounts split from the rest of the media (i-level's COI and Orange accounts are obvious exceptions, but how long will this remain the case?).

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W+K's Neil Christie makes some observations on pitches:

A pitch every 3 weeks sounds like an insane workload. Hats off to [AMV] for somehow making it work. Next question: can an agency absorb 14 new clients within 12 months without it affecting quality control?

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David Armano with a good round up of several articles looking at the current crisis facing traditional agencies. Go have a read.

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AdAge have announced their agencies of the year and digital has triumphed, with Goodby, Silverstein & Partners coming out on top and Tribal DDB taking the international agency of the year title. Go check out the whole supplement, before it disappears behind a pay-wall.

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Shaun McIlrath, Creative Director at Hurrell and Dawson on how to do Direct:

it is your job to help your clients be uncorporate – to be human. You can do it through comms, or by working within the company to help make it more accessible and helpful to the customer – but do it, because it will make their behaviour more distinctive and their comms more engaging.

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Richard Moss, EVP at Weber Shandwick, on their recent hire of DDB's Leo Rayman into the role of European Head of Planning:

The PR industry has transformed itself in recent years, by putting measurement at the heart of its agenda. Today insight is increasingly being adopted as the new agenda as clients provide increasingly complex challenges that require much deeper insights into the influences behind today’s customer behaviours. As a result we are commissioning research reports, buying into new consumer panels and uncovering new streams of data in a way that never happened before. And this of course is the issue. Does a fantastic publicity person, also have the necessary skills to sift through all of this data and identify what is relevant or not? Can a creative guru, always separate dreams from reality? Can the slick account man, say no?

Historically the PR industry hasn’t divided its roles in the same way as the ad industry. But as clients see the growing importance of advocacy within their marketing mix and recognise that PR is best equipped to deliver against their needs, things are changing. Every agency man knows that clients buy on trust and for the PR industry that trust is coming from demonstrating, consistently it’s ability to navigate client brands through an increasingly complex and cluttered world.

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Simon Veksner, Creatve Director at BBH:

Jon Williams, formerly a digital creative director just got hired to be executive creative director of one of Britain's biggest above-the-line agencies.

Does this news not represent a massive threat to all above the line creatives, or perhaps more accurately, to all above the line creatives without digital expertise and experience?

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OK, it's been a while since I last slammed BBH's digital efforts, but they've been generating a lot of noise about their new website for Lynx, the first work they've done for them since they won the digital account a year ago. So how far have they come? Leaving aside any concerns I might have with the Lynx/Axe brand itself of course…

Well the production values are markedly better that their previous effort for Audi, but you'd expect that as they used Preloaded for the production. But in terms of "getting" this whole interweb thing, I really don't think they have at all. It's pretty shit, isn't it? And not remotely engaging, even for the target audience, I'd imagine. A bit like the sites some of us were building in in the Web 1.0 days, but worse, because a lot of it is behind a registration barrier.

The commenters on Simon Veksner's blog, a Creative Director at BBH, seem to agree with me – what do you think?

Update: Campaign ups the ante, speaking to the team at BBH and several notable digital creative directors about the site (and also has a misguided editorial on the issue) and Revolution asks the opinion of other digital luminaries.

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Daniele Fiandaca, COO of Profero, reflects on 2007 and then goes on to list his 5 favourite campaigns of the year:

Personally I feel that 2007 was a little disappointing in terms of digital creativity and the School Report would be ‘Could do better’. While Cannes actually produced some of the most worthy Cannes Grand Prix Cyberlion winners for a while, the reality is that only Heides was actually launched in 2007 and even that was in January. There has really been very little that has made me really excited and even then it has been sporadic.

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