{"id":3354,"date":"2025-05-09T17:54:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-09T17:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newclassic.agency\/?p=3354"},"modified":"2025-05-28T22:12:38","modified_gmt":"2025-05-28T22:12:38","slug":"agencies-cost-consolidation-shoeless-kids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newclassic.agency\/2025\/05\/09\/agencies-cost-consolidation-shoeless-kids\/","title":{"rendered":"Agencies, Cost, Consolidation & Shoeless Kids"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The cobbler\u2019s kids may be shoeless but agency restructure isn\u2019t what took them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s easy to talk about how GroupM\u2019s consolidation is systemic of agencies not respecting the power of brand, but it goes deeper than that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brand is only as powerful as what\u2019s behind it and the ease at which agencies are consolidating is a sign of the industry\u2019s lack of distinctiveness in how it thinks and operates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Agencies like GroupM\u2019s have great talent and potential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, when everyone buys and sells agencies, especially in media, on cost – the name on the door and the offering inside matter less.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t know if it was always this way, but having been lucky enough to start my career at Mindshare in London, I\u2019ll always fondly remember the philosophy, thinking and people that name holds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rumour is that while \u2018GroupM\u2019 is changing to \u2018WPP Media\u2019, the agency brands will stay distinct as client teams. However, beyond names, when someone sits across agencies, where does the philosophy sit? Half and half football game scarves don\u2019t sell as well for a reason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scale gives perspective and efficiency but it takes away uniqueness – just ask anyone who runs a food court. Algorithms benefit from consolidation more than people and, for the moment, we\u2019re struggling to reconcile craft and technology. The agency model has to adapt, but that\u2019s been a truth since it\u2019s inception. We have to build, philosophically clear offerings, not clear cut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have no doubt the industry and more clients will swing back to finding the unique magic in an agency philosophy, and a lot of the great people now leaving WPP this week will be part in that change from the ground up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Nostalgia is particularly dangerous in today\u2019s advertising industry, but the faded JWT mug on my kitchen shelf reminds me that an agency is more than costs and overhead – it\u2019s thinking, beliefs and a rallying spirit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For now, the cobbler\u2019s kids are waiting for their parents to remember they\u2019re in the shoe business. Hopefully this happens soon, as rallying behind incremental cost savings and technological realignment doesn\u2019t have the same ring to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s why New Classic exists as well, because I believe today’s best ideas are going to come from the ground up, with a good, distinct strategy supporting them. It might only be one part of the puzzle, but its a part I’m proud of. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GroupM’s consolidation isn’t a sign of advertising not respecting its own output – its a plea for greater agency distinctiveness<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3357,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-thinking"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newclassic.agency\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newclassic.agency\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newclassic.agency\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newclassic.agency\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newclassic.agency\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3354"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/newclassic.agency\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3354\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3501,"href":"https:\/\/newclassic.agency\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3354\/revisions\/3501"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newclassic.agency\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newclassic.agency\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newclassic.agency\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newclassic.agency\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}