The Connectioncy: A Hypothetical Advertising "Agency" for 2010

The Media Post Columns
This is the interactive version of my monthly column at MediaPost. This month’s column describes a fun, stimulating group discussion I recently participated in —the "Yellow" breakout group at the Advertising Research Foundation (The ARF) What’s Next conference in December.

Our "job" was to anticipate societal changes and invent a new type of ad agency to capitalize on them.

We invented the hypothetical Connectioncy, a firm that dramatically reduces the classic "Principal-Agent" problem, facilitates an always-on information-osmosis between advertiser, consumer, and media/publishing entities — and breaks down barriers between research and creative work. Our firm will not be housed in one tall building. Our ÒofficesÓ will be hundreds of connected street-level, walk-in, pop-up retail ÒstoresÓ that look like a cross between a cafŽ and a Kinko’s (with video, audio, photography and web stations, of course).

The Yellow Group was made up senior execs from the worldsÕ largest tech company ; an old-line media conglomerate; a global telecoms firm, one of todayÕs largest ad agencies; and one of the teeniest (participants are listed below).

This was a conference in the true sense of the word. People conferred. The size was deliberately kept small and the sessions—heavy on intimate ÒbreakoutÓ sessions—were designed so that we could connect beyond talking ÒtoÓ or being talked ÒtoÓ from a dais. By being about talking ÒwithÓ, the conference itself embodied many of changes we built into our hypothetical agency.

We brainstormed changes in society and industry such as:

• Trust/dislike of advertising Why was ad-skipping technology even invented? There is no technology called Òstuff-I-love-skippingÓ. ThereÕd be no market for it.

• Fast-changing consumer habits and tastes—including rapid-growth media formats such as MySpace

• Consumer-created media. Some examples (thanks to imediaconnection and blogumentary) iPod ad by a schoolteacher and an altered Carls Jr. ad.
  

• Stimulation inflation, i.e. waaaaaay too much information for any one to process—and the sharply increased need for hyper-relevancy of both message and media
  

What we came up with: A Connectioncy, a firm that works with consumers 24/7, an always-on connector between advertiser and consumer

• Our distributed walk-in, pop-up "offices" will be in diverse neighborhoods throughout the countries where we work—not just in the urban centers. WeÕll also own tricked out RV’s so that we can roll up at events —and roll our own events.

• We will co-create advertising with consumers. Creative sessions will be de-facto research sessions. We will absorb consumer tastes by osmosis. It will go directly into the advertising itself. Our creative people will be coaches—they will help consumers create ads with our means of production and expertise. Of course, our best creative experts will know when to hold back and let the consumer shine.

• Of course we will have the means to upload our co-creations to the free mediasphere. Even better, by having an always-on knowledge of consumer media habits, we will be able to execute highly targeted media buys. We will not only be facilitating so-called consumer-generated ads, but also consumer-generated media buys.
  

• Everybody will be a principal. We will not have clients. We will have joint ventures. Every new account will in fact be a new company co-owned by what used to be called the ÒclientÓ and what used to be called the Òagency.Ó There will be ample stock options for employees of both firms—as well as for active, involved consumers and media partners.

Sound good? You can’t hire us yet—or invest. But you can chime in with ideas, inspirations, improvements or plain old rants. The comment button is below.

Not everybody in the group wanted to be listed… those that did are:
Cassandra Bates, VP Marketing and Biz Dev, The ARF
Larry Brownell, Executive Director, Marketing Research Association
Adam Coleman, Group Research Manager, Global Advertising Research Lead, Microsoft
Matt Elders, SVP Worldwide Sales, Iconoculture
Stefan Jenzowsky, Vice President Business Innovation, Siemens AG
Barak Kassar, President & Creative Director, Rassak Experience
Davina Kent, VP Advertisng Sales, Tivo
Drew Livingston, President FreeCar Media
Bill Tanner, Director Strategic Research & Audience Devleopment, Belo Corp
Geoff Workman, VP Biz Dev, Crossover Capital

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