ADVERTISING NEEDS MORE ENTREPRENEURSHIP, MORE THAN EVER

Being an entrepreneur in the Advertising industry is a badge of honor.

Clients need more independent agencies. And they need them for strategic and creative excellence, for innovation, but more importantly to out-innovate the competition. And herein lies the greatest advantage of the challenger agency. They are hungrier, stronger, more inventive. They have to be or risk falling to the side.

The sign of a healthy industry is the state of its entrepreneurial spirit. The advertising industry as a whole needs more entrepreneurs. The large conglomerates that control and dominate the industry need more competition. In many parts of the world this is happening. But I believe we could use more.

Smarter, hungry companies make the industry as a whole stronger, better, more effective and more efficient. Clear proof of this is how the corporate legacy agencies continue to pay well for these entrepreneurial ventures. Yesterday, word has it Trevor Beattie's independent shop in London is being absorbed by his former employer TBWA.

In India - one of the fastest evolving advertising markets out there, Campaign India reports that the: number of ad folks who have recently given up that fancy side cabin with “the view” and fancy network agency trappings to start their own venture tells its own story. Charles Cadell, CEO, Lowe India says that the recent trend is clearly indicative of the number of opportunities that abound in the industry for the entrepreneurially minded combined with the consistent growth prospects of the market.

In Sweden, new shops are popping up like mushrooms, but these new entrepreneurial passion centers like AlbertKen are focused squarely in the digital space - the space of growth in the ad industry.

In Canada, the dominate agency TAXI (the entrepreneurial gold standard) recently lost it's star and very charming partner ECD Zak Mroueh who, bitten by the big bug, decided to go off and start his very own, you guessed it, shop. Zak's record speaks for itself. His agency bills itself as a fresh take on the agency model. I'm not really sure what this means since the model has been reinvented by a number of companies during the past 5-10 years by innovative shops like Persuasion Arts and Science, Stanley Hainsworth's Tether, Anomaly, Far Far and StrawberryFrog. But Zak's ambition for the Canadian market is right and he is challenging the status quo - which is the right medicine from a newcomer.

In Brazil, independent StrawberryFrog launched last year, led by the affable Peralta - a legendary creative director and a thriving entrepreneur. His company has won business from the countries elite brands and attracted some of the best talent to the firm. In Japan, the land the redefines the words 'corporate advertising industry' Tugboat is slicing through. UK-based, Burt Reynold's loving, Lean Mean Fighting Machine came out of nowhere to scoop a bag full of trophies at last year's Cannes Lions against the huge AKQA and RGA digital agencies.

We need more people like this. A little backbone and a lot of ambition. Because this drives the industry forward. And the more people in the huge conglomerates see indies succeed the more they should think "hey if they can do it, I can do it too."

Last week, I wrote a blog entry challenging Corporate Adfolk to jump ship and join an independent agency instead of spending their time trying to fix an existing corporate agency. Because this is where the fun and purity of our business lies. Advertising and marketing are the essence of entrepreneurship. People who own and manage their own companies prove every day that they, by their every existence, know how to build brands. They know how to put their livelihoods on the line every. They know that principles aren't just words on a manual, but that principles cost you money.

Comments

[Anbuchezhian]

Hi Scott

A very nice piece of article. But once again it depends on how much the clients are willing to experiment. Most of them I guess take pride in saying that they work with Ogilvy,JWT, DDB etc rather than a small shop. And second as long as large businesses get globally aligned and shift happens in the region to the network agency how will a small shop get the benefit to work on larger brands even though they can produce quality stuff than the so called high profile agencies.

[bhatnaturally]

Scott, a thought provoking post. I think a big catalyst for mushrooming new agencies (at least in India) is the tendency among the big agency groups to rely on traditional media big time. Some of my friends who have spent eons in big network agencies have started digital agencies since such specialist domains are still finding their feet within the big agencies.

[Jess]

Couldn't agree with you more. Small firms can take the risk, focus on niche markets and run with the new and fun ways to attract attention and communicate online. It will be cool to see the variety of new firms and their focus as more and more money moves to the digital space. These guys are a perfect example of taking a new technology opportunity and running with it. http://www.giantantmedia.com

[Manish Sinha]

You cudn't be more correct scott...big networks even if they try cannot be entreprenuerial. There is just too much bureaucracy and sloth.

too many departments. Too focussed on their quarterly budgets and the here and now. Also, some of the best talent in these places are not pooled together. They generally don't get to build togther!

And there is a disincentive to experiment with all the changes in in new media and technology.

Moreover, even though the networks are huge the level of conversation - both quantity and quality is low and hence the entrepreneurial collaboration always lags behind.