The Mad Men Reckoning
The Mad Men Reckoning
The Mad Men Reckoning
May 16, 2022
May 16, 2022
When I started Lazy Eight, I had absolutely no experience in the creative agency space. Lazy Eight was a personal experiment for me to pursue my lifelong passion for design and also a chance for me to learn about various industry verticals, brands, and markets spectrally across geos and demos (ie. my pseudo MBA). So over the past near decade, I have questioned everything and have tried to diligently observe every nuance of this field.
In recent years, I have noticed a significant transformation currently taking place in the creative agency landscape. The traditional agency model, once highly respected, seems to be facing its own 'Kodak' moment. There is a sense of change moving through the industry, demanding a shift in operational paradigms. The predictable methods of the past are now struggling under the pressure of modern realities and future AI biased crystal ball gazers.
Like others, as Lazy Eight navigates through this change, I thought it would be helpful to share some high-level insights I have gathered over the past year or so. Whether you agree or disagree, feel free to reach out. I always welcome healthy debates :)
1) Unwillingness to Question the Big 3:
In the past decade, these once-robust traditional models have unintentionally harmed themselves. The pattern I have noticed is that many agencies have tried to mimic the methodologies of the "big 3" and then package it with either an economic or intimate (studio) value proposition. For example, the big 3 prioritized user awareness over user experience, allowed vendor models to overshadow partnership models, and placed importance on the quantity and speed of content rather than its actual usefulness. As a result, they have influenced the approach to audience engagement, advertising strategies, and even brand narratives. This domino effect has impacted the entire industry, unfortunately for the worse.
2) Pricing based on Peacocking:
Another aspect that caught my attention is how pricing was being defined. Glamorised personas, such as the "Don Drapers," and the obsession with awards have set standards for pricing, disconnecting the process from economic principles. This has created a culture where recognition and accolades hold more weight than solid business fundamentals. As a result, agencies have become less agile and less sensitive to brand budgets and opportunities to work with smaller or emerging brands that are more open to experimentation, as well as brands in smaller, upcoming regions.
3) Technology for Dodo Birds:
It's no surprise that advancements in technology have forced traditional agencies to reevaluate their approaches in recent years. The rise of remote working cultures, particularly after the pandemic, has shifted the focus away from capital-intensive offices with centralized teams to more distributed, global structures that can take advantage of economic arbitrages.
Technology has also empowered forward-thinking agencies with tools to capture and analyze data, enabling them to develop effective pricing models and moving away from traditional opaque pricing structures. Clients are increasingly demanding transparency in understanding how services are priced.
Additionally, with the emergence of AI and its ability to enhance productivity across agency hierarchies, upper management is now reevaluating the head count game vs. optimal output. Clients are also questioning bloated staffing requirements.
The Result: Creativity as a Utility?
In my opinion, considering the factors mentioned above, we will witness a shift in traditional creative agencies transforming from service-oriented hubs to productized forms of creative utility facilitated by technology, optimized through AI, and priced based on data. We are already seeing glimpses of this transition with the rise of "design as a service" (DAAS) models.
Personally, I don't think they are the correct models to achieve true "Creativity as a Utility" as they are unscalable like most fractional hiring models and better serve clients with multiple brands (eg. Hold Cos, VCs, etc) vs. individual brands.
I know the team at Lazy Eight has been exploring alt models and a few of them look pretty interesting. I'll probably write about a them once they are a bit more tried and tested.
Overall I think this next phase for creative agencies is going to exciting. Challenging for some, fruitful for others. Modus operandi should be that all should be open to questioning, experimenting and exploring and not be tied down by "the way", because a reckoning is coming faster than most think and it would be mad if not insane if Mad Men don't take notice.
For the cover image I recreated the iconic Madmen image/poster from the show and added a bit of quirk.
When I started Lazy Eight, I had absolutely no experience in the creative agency space. Lazy Eight was a personal experiment for me to pursue my lifelong passion for design and also a chance for me to learn about various industry verticals, brands, and markets spectrally across geos and demos (ie. my pseudo MBA). So over the past near decade, I have questioned everything and have tried to diligently observe every nuance of this field.
In recent years, I have noticed a significant transformation currently taking place in the creative agency landscape. The traditional agency model, once highly respected, seems to be facing its own 'Kodak' moment. There is a sense of change moving through the industry, demanding a shift in operational paradigms. The predictable methods of the past are now struggling under the pressure of modern realities and future AI biased crystal ball gazers.
Like others, as Lazy Eight navigates through this change, I thought it would be helpful to share some high-level insights I have gathered over the past year or so. Whether you agree or disagree, feel free to reach out. I always welcome healthy debates :)
1) Unwillingness to Question the Big 3:
In the past decade, these once-robust traditional models have unintentionally harmed themselves. The pattern I have noticed is that many agencies have tried to mimic the methodologies of the "big 3" and then package it with either an economic or intimate (studio) value proposition. For example, the big 3 prioritized user awareness over user experience, allowed vendor models to overshadow partnership models, and placed importance on the quantity and speed of content rather than its actual usefulness. As a result, they have influenced the approach to audience engagement, advertising strategies, and even brand narratives. This domino effect has impacted the entire industry, unfortunately for the worse.
2) Pricing based on Peacocking:
Another aspect that caught my attention is how pricing was being defined. Glamorised personas, such as the "Don Drapers," and the obsession with awards have set standards for pricing, disconnecting the process from economic principles. This has created a culture where recognition and accolades hold more weight than solid business fundamentals. As a result, agencies have become less agile and less sensitive to brand budgets and opportunities to work with smaller or emerging brands that are more open to experimentation, as well as brands in smaller, upcoming regions.
3) Technology for Dodo Birds:
It's no surprise that advancements in technology have forced traditional agencies to reevaluate their approaches in recent years. The rise of remote working cultures, particularly after the pandemic, has shifted the focus away from capital-intensive offices with centralized teams to more distributed, global structures that can take advantage of economic arbitrages.
Technology has also empowered forward-thinking agencies with tools to capture and analyze data, enabling them to develop effective pricing models and moving away from traditional opaque pricing structures. Clients are increasingly demanding transparency in understanding how services are priced.
Additionally, with the emergence of AI and its ability to enhance productivity across agency hierarchies, upper management is now reevaluating the head count game vs. optimal output. Clients are also questioning bloated staffing requirements.
The Result: Creativity as a Utility?
In my opinion, considering the factors mentioned above, we will witness a shift in traditional creative agencies transforming from service-oriented hubs to productized forms of creative utility facilitated by technology, optimized through AI, and priced based on data. We are already seeing glimpses of this transition with the rise of "design as a service" (DAAS) models.
Personally, I don't think they are the correct models to achieve true "Creativity as a Utility" as they are unscalable like most fractional hiring models and better serve clients with multiple brands (eg. Hold Cos, VCs, etc) vs. individual brands.
I know the team at Lazy Eight has been exploring alt models and a few of them look pretty interesting. I'll probably write about a them once they are a bit more tried and tested.
Overall I think this next phase for creative agencies is going to exciting. Challenging for some, fruitful for others. Modus operandi should be that all should be open to questioning, experimenting and exploring and not be tied down by "the way", because a reckoning is coming faster than most think and it would be mad if not insane if Mad Men don't take notice.
For the cover image I recreated the iconic Madmen image/poster from the show and added a bit of quirk.
When I started Lazy Eight, I had absolutely no experience in the creative agency space. Lazy Eight was a personal experiment for me to pursue my lifelong passion for design and also a chance for me to learn about various industry verticals, brands, and markets spectrally across geos and demos (ie. my pseudo MBA). So over the past near decade, I have questioned everything and have tried to diligently observe every nuance of this field.
In recent years, I have noticed a significant transformation currently taking place in the creative agency landscape. The traditional agency model, once highly respected, seems to be facing its own 'Kodak' moment. There is a sense of change moving through the industry, demanding a shift in operational paradigms. The predictable methods of the past are now struggling under the pressure of modern realities and future AI biased crystal ball gazers.
Like others, as Lazy Eight navigates through this change, I thought it would be helpful to share some high-level insights I have gathered over the past year or so. Whether you agree or disagree, feel free to reach out. I always welcome healthy debates :)
1) Unwillingness to Question the Big 3:
In the past decade, these once-robust traditional models have unintentionally harmed themselves. The pattern I have noticed is that many agencies have tried to mimic the methodologies of the "big 3" and then package it with either an economic or intimate (studio) value proposition. For example, the big 3 prioritized user awareness over user experience, allowed vendor models to overshadow partnership models, and placed importance on the quantity and speed of content rather than its actual usefulness. As a result, they have influenced the approach to audience engagement, advertising strategies, and even brand narratives. This domino effect has impacted the entire industry, unfortunately for the worse.
2) Pricing based on Peacocking:
Another aspect that caught my attention is how pricing was being defined. Glamorised personas, such as the "Don Drapers," and the obsession with awards have set standards for pricing, disconnecting the process from economic principles. This has created a culture where recognition and accolades hold more weight than solid business fundamentals. As a result, agencies have become less agile and less sensitive to brand budgets and opportunities to work with smaller or emerging brands that are more open to experimentation, as well as brands in smaller, upcoming regions.
3) Technology for Dodo Birds:
It's no surprise that advancements in technology have forced traditional agencies to reevaluate their approaches in recent years. The rise of remote working cultures, particularly after the pandemic, has shifted the focus away from capital-intensive offices with centralized teams to more distributed, global structures that can take advantage of economic arbitrages.
Technology has also empowered forward-thinking agencies with tools to capture and analyze data, enabling them to develop effective pricing models and moving away from traditional opaque pricing structures. Clients are increasingly demanding transparency in understanding how services are priced.
Additionally, with the emergence of AI and its ability to enhance productivity across agency hierarchies, upper management is now reevaluating the head count game vs. optimal output. Clients are also questioning bloated staffing requirements.
The Result: Creativity as a Utility?
In my opinion, considering the factors mentioned above, we will witness a shift in traditional creative agencies transforming from service-oriented hubs to productized forms of creative utility facilitated by technology, optimized through AI, and priced based on data. We are already seeing glimpses of this transition with the rise of "design as a service" (DAAS) models.
Personally, I don't think they are the correct models to achieve true "Creativity as a Utility" as they are unscalable like most fractional hiring models and better serve clients with multiple brands (eg. Hold Cos, VCs, etc) vs. individual brands.
I know the team at Lazy Eight has been exploring alt models and a few of them look pretty interesting. I'll probably write about a them once they are a bit more tried and tested.
Overall I think this next phase for creative agencies is going to exciting. Challenging for some, fruitful for others. Modus operandi should be that all should be open to questioning, experimenting and exploring and not be tied down by "the way", because a reckoning is coming faster than most think and it would be mad if not insane if Mad Men don't take notice.
For the cover image I recreated the iconic Madmen image/poster from the show and added a bit of quirk.
When I started Lazy Eight, I had absolutely no experience in the creative agency space. Lazy Eight was a personal experiment for me to pursue my lifelong passion for design and also a chance for me to learn about various industry verticals, brands, and markets spectrally across geos and demos (ie. my pseudo MBA). So over the past near decade, I have questioned everything and have tried to diligently observe every nuance of this field.
In recent years, I have noticed a significant transformation currently taking place in the creative agency landscape. The traditional agency model, once highly respected, seems to be facing its own 'Kodak' moment. There is a sense of change moving through the industry, demanding a shift in operational paradigms. The predictable methods of the past are now struggling under the pressure of modern realities and future AI biased crystal ball gazers.
Like others, as Lazy Eight navigates through this change, I thought it would be helpful to share some high-level insights I have gathered over the past year or so. Whether you agree or disagree, feel free to reach out. I always welcome healthy debates :)
1) Unwillingness to Question the Big 3:
In the past decade, these once-robust traditional models have unintentionally harmed themselves. The pattern I have noticed is that many agencies have tried to mimic the methodologies of the "big 3" and then package it with either an economic or intimate (studio) value proposition. For example, the big 3 prioritized user awareness over user experience, allowed vendor models to overshadow partnership models, and placed importance on the quantity and speed of content rather than its actual usefulness. As a result, they have influenced the approach to audience engagement, advertising strategies, and even brand narratives. This domino effect has impacted the entire industry, unfortunately for the worse.
2) Pricing based on Peacocking:
Another aspect that caught my attention is how pricing was being defined. Glamorised personas, such as the "Don Drapers," and the obsession with awards have set standards for pricing, disconnecting the process from economic principles. This has created a culture where recognition and accolades hold more weight than solid business fundamentals. As a result, agencies have become less agile and less sensitive to brand budgets and opportunities to work with smaller or emerging brands that are more open to experimentation, as well as brands in smaller, upcoming regions.
3) Technology for Dodo Birds:
It's no surprise that advancements in technology have forced traditional agencies to reevaluate their approaches in recent years. The rise of remote working cultures, particularly after the pandemic, has shifted the focus away from capital-intensive offices with centralized teams to more distributed, global structures that can take advantage of economic arbitrages.
Technology has also empowered forward-thinking agencies with tools to capture and analyze data, enabling them to develop effective pricing models and moving away from traditional opaque pricing structures. Clients are increasingly demanding transparency in understanding how services are priced.
Additionally, with the emergence of AI and its ability to enhance productivity across agency hierarchies, upper management is now reevaluating the head count game vs. optimal output. Clients are also questioning bloated staffing requirements.
The Result: Creativity as a Utility?
In my opinion, considering the factors mentioned above, we will witness a shift in traditional creative agencies transforming from service-oriented hubs to productized forms of creative utility facilitated by technology, optimized through AI, and priced based on data. We are already seeing glimpses of this transition with the rise of "design as a service" (DAAS) models.
Personally, I don't think they are the correct models to achieve true "Creativity as a Utility" as they are unscalable like most fractional hiring models and better serve clients with multiple brands (eg. Hold Cos, VCs, etc) vs. individual brands.
I know the team at Lazy Eight has been exploring alt models and a few of them look pretty interesting. I'll probably write about a them once they are a bit more tried and tested.
Overall I think this next phase for creative agencies is going to exciting. Challenging for some, fruitful for others. Modus operandi should be that all should be open to questioning, experimenting and exploring and not be tied down by "the way", because a reckoning is coming faster than most think and it would be mad if not insane if Mad Men don't take notice.
For the cover image I recreated the iconic Madmen image/poster from the show and added a bit of quirk.