We Aren't Technology Companies We’re Ad Agencies

In his post talking about WPP acquiring 24/7 Real Media, Scott Karp asks the question:

"Do you see the disruption of the ad agency business going on here?"

I think what i find soooo frustrating when I see what's going on in the ad business, is how much warning, how much time they have had to get their collective shit together and have failed miserably to even see any of this coming.

I wrote about this previously here . Agencies owned the relationships with their clients. What really amazes me is the fact that they never saw digital as a means to deepening that relationship. It wasn't just about advertising, it was about the potential for the data to be a platform to drive brilliant communications that could have been more personalized and useful to their customers.

Instead, they outsourced, undervalued, misunderstood and gave away the data to "technology" companies.

So Ad Agencies are clear that they aren't technology companies. And as Scott Karp mentions, Google’s clear that they aren't an Ad Agency.

I’ll just file those statements alongside some others I like:

‘There are weapons of mass destruction in Iraq’
‘Read my lips. No more new taxes’
and a friend of mine’s kids all important belief that Santa Clause lives in the North Pole with Superman (I mean that last one makes a lot of sense if you think about it).