Nike’s Warning Shot to Agencies: Just Do It
The Wall Street Journal carries a warning shot to all advertising agencies from brand power house Nike to “Just Do It” and beef up their interactive capabilities or risk being left out in the cold. The venerable sneaker brand is looking beyond its longtime agency Widen + Kennedy for a new agency to do interactive.
Sounds to us like the same warning shot fired off at OMMA Hollywood last week.
“The message is clear: No matter how talented an agency’s creative team or how well the client likes the firm’s executives, the agency is of limited value unless it embraces digital media.”
When will we stop reporting this “revelation” as if it is news? We are ten+ years into this digital revolution. How much longer can we serve the Kool Aid? (OK, answer is as long as some can make money serving the Kool Aid.)
To make things worse in the Nike instance, WSJ reports Widen + Kennedy passed on a major collaboration with super-hot San Fran digital ad firm AKQA back about two years ago (sorry, General Atlantic just showed up–opportunity gone.)
WPP is busy trying to figure out how to bake in interactive, and so is Publicis with its purchase of Digitas last year. The WSJ gives final word to Tribal DDB’s Matt Freeman, the omnipresent talking head on the conference circuit and CEO of the agency:
“At the end of the day it’s all about who is in charge… Traditional ad people are in favor of integration as long as they are in control. It comes down to who reports to who and egos.”
And there lies the problem…
Update: Crispin Porter on The Next Wave
-- Jay Sears
Sphere It