soupsoup:youmightfindyourself:

This article about Ad Agency websites is 100% true… but here’s the thing. Agencies are B2B not B2C - I used to work for a marketing strategy company and we partnered with the biggest agencies in the country for our clients. Not only didn’t we need, but we didn’t want “web 2.0 sharing” across social networks, comments for random feedback, random small companies calling / emailing / soliciting us for their projects - when a business called, a 18-year-old intern would answer the phone and tell them our base price of $100,000 for a campaign and usually not wait for the click on the other end.

To a lot of people it seems like the companies are all run by old guys who “don’t get it” but they just don’t give a fuck - as much as everybody wants to believe this is the era of the end-user, outward-facing engagement and interaction are not important to the people who make decisions at established companies.

Steve Jobs doesn’t give a shit what you have to say on twitter any more than he gives a shit what HE would be saying on twitter - it’s social masturbation and egocentric procrastination. Kate Moss doesn’t need to spend hours uploading photos of her magazine spreads and ad campaigns and GPOYWs and whatever - she has thousands of us to do it for her, she’s probably never seen 75% of the magazines she adorns, but that doesn’t change her contract price one bit. They don’t deal with the public anymore than Agencies do - and you’re no more likely find Kate’s phone number listed in the phonebook than you are to find an easy way to call Donny Deutsch and ask him to help you push your new…. whatever.

Advertising is a small, incestuous world - TBWA, Wieden+Kennedy, Cutwater, Digitas, Goodby, Deutsch, et al - we all knew each other, knew how to get a hold of each other, and knew what the other guys were working on at any time. There are innumerable websites, publications, case studies dedicated to every breath these companies take, their websites could be the company name centered in Times New Roman and it wouldn’t matter - the flash and glowing pictures are really just a place for for deviantart kids to jerk off and “the new guys” to steal ideas.

So go ahead and tell me I’m wrong, and this “old model” is dying and things are changing. For now, Nike isn’t going to let a $10/hr Craigslist graphic designer create their new campaign any more than Dan Wieden is going to take a call from a falafel cart pusher looking to reinvent his brand.