This is the perfect time to use George Parker’s BDA acronym which stands for Big Dumb Agencies. Adrants reader Lauren tipped us to a story in AdWeek about Omnicom’s John Wren touting the holding company’s “non-traditional” work.
The story miffed here a bit and she wrote us, “Congratulations Omnicom and welcome to the digital age. This article really bothered me because it seems like the advertising trades are so obsessed with covering any bit of news coming out of holding companies that they are missing the real news, the real trends and maybe even the cool interactive work that’s being done now, and not in 2006. And (gasp) maybe, just maybe it’s not the holding companies that are ahead of the game this time…”
Indeed, the article did lavish praise on an a company hardly known for anything more than big TV campaigns. Though Wren did say the company is agnostic and “we earn our fees working for clients by doing what we’ve always been doing and by pushing it through all sorts of media,” citing 2-3 examples over the past two years is hardly cutting edge and AdWeek should know it. Just read Adrants. Countless agencies – mostly independents – are doing fantastic work on a daily basis and putting BDAs to shame.
It’s not that holding companies don’t know they need to change. Anyone with half a brain employed by one knows as much. Then again, that might be a lot to expect. Everyone in the industry is trying to keep up. But just like increasing the number of people you are out bar hopping with each night exponentially slows the pace of the group, the bigger the BDA, the slower they are to catch on to the changes around them.
