1. Progressive Agency
Business Models
Presented by
Tim Williams

2. Reimagining
the agency
business model

3. Advertising agency income
“per unit of work” has
fallen 40% during a
steady 20-year decline.

4. There is just as much money
being spent in marketing.
It’s just that less and less of
it is spent in “advertising.”

7. Satisfied client needs
Overserved markets
Unsatisfied client needs
Underserved markets
Many providers
Low margins
Few providers
High margins
Overdeveloped
Services
Underdeveloped
Services

8. Satisfied client needs
Overserved markets
Many providers
Low margins
Overdeveloped
Services
“A full-service, integrated
agency offering a wide
variety of services.”

9. Unsatisfied client needs
Underserved markets
Few providers
High margins
Underdeveloped
Services
“Garage will be a
strategic and
entrepreneurial shop that
will concept, create and
invest in innovative
products, experiences,
content and technology
that will help to redefine
the idea of what a
modern, global brand is.”
John Jay

12. Agencies as
product
developers
PROGRESSIVE AGENCY BUSINESS MODELS

13. “Instead of being executors of
communication campaigns, we must
become inventors, architects and
conductors. The brands we all love see
themselves that way. Nike and Apple, for
example, don't really make anything. They
invent products but leave it to their
vendors to build them. It's much better to
be an Apple than a Foxconn.”
John Winsor
Chief Innovation Officer, Havas
CEO, Victors & Spoils

14. Agencies as product developers

15. Agencies as product developers

16. Agencies as product developers

17. Agencies as product developers

18. Agencies as product developers

19. Agencies
as incubators
PROGRESSIVE AGENCY BUSINESS MODELS

20. “Agencies will transform into broad ranging
companies that provide business
transformation consulting, product
innovation, technology innovation, brand
development and a myriad of production
capabilities. The ‘agency’ part of these new
companies will just be a piece of the whole,
not the entire business.”
Robert Greenberg
RG/A
The Economic Times, January 2014

21. Agencies as incubators

22. Agencies as incubators

23. Agencies as incubators

24. Agencies
as labs
PROGRESSIVE AGENCY BUSINESS MODELS

25. “Traditionally, agencies have
created value for their clients
through better and different
communications. But brand
behavior can now come to life
in digital products, services, and
experiences.”
Will Nicholls

26. Agencies as labs

27. Agencies as labs

28. Agencies as labs

29. Agencies as labs

30. Agencies as labs

31. Agencies
as studios
PROGRESSIVE AGENCY BUSINESS MODELS

32. Agencies as studios
OVERDEVELOPED
SERVICES
Satisfied client needs
Overserved markets
Many providers
Low margins

33. Agencies as studios

34. Agencies as studios

35. Agencies as
experience
designers
PROGRESSIVE AGENCY BUSINESS MODELS

36. “Most ‘products’ are actually
services. This provides great
opportunities for marketing
firms to get into the business
of optimizing the customer
experience. ”

37. Agencies as experience designers

38. Agencies as experience designers

39. Agencies as experience designers

40. Agencies
as talent
networks
PROGRESSIVE AGENCY BUSINESS MODELS

41. “The expertise that drives
organizational value now
resides in a network of
relationships outside the
organization itself.”

42. Agencies as talent networks

43. Agencies as talent networks

44. Agencies as talent networks

45. Agencies as talent networks

46. Agencies as
intellectual
property
owners
PROGRESSIVE AGENCY BUSINESS MODELS

47. “Advertising is not a service
business, we’re a product
business, like publishing and
other businesses that deal with
intellectual property.”
Jeff Hicks
Former Vice Chairman, Crispin Porter + Bogusky

48. Agencies as IP owners

49. Agencies as IP owners

50. Agencies as IP owners

51. Agencies as IP owners
As part of the brief:
“What is the marketing
invention that will deliver
the desired behavior?”

52. Agencies as
start-ups
PROGRESSIVE AGENCY BUSINESS MODELS

53. “Successful start-ups assume
they’re in a fight for their
lives and must operate
accordingly. Agencies are also
fighting for their lives, but
don’t all know it yet.”
Renny Gleason,
Weiden+Kennedy’s Portland Incubator Experiment (PIE)
As quoted in Admap

54. To avoid being disrupted, the best course is to
DISRUPT YOUR OWN BRAND
Agencies as “start-ups”

55. Agencies as “start-ups”

56. “Be 20% more selective in
chasing new business, and
invest the cost savings in
innovating your own brand.”
Tom Finneran
4As

57. STARVE THE PROBLEMS
FEED THE OPPORTUNITIES
Peter Drucker

58. www.IgnitionGroup.com
@TimWilliamsICG
www.linkedin.com/in/TimWilliamsICG
“Positioning for Professionals”
by Tim Williams