Agency Suits and Design Geeks
By Lucas Daniel
Grasping for a market that was expected to multiply tenfold over five years, many ad agencies have spun off interactive design divisions only to have to reorganize to compete with true interactive agencies like Razorfish and Sapient. However, many such divisions have been perceived as mired in an ad-agency mentality that results in a heavy marketing perspective. But now these divisions are shifting their focus to offer a wide array of services beyond marketing. Agencies like USWeb/CKS set industry precedents by integrating agency suits and design geeks. The merger and acquisition activity among ad agencies is an attempt to fuse these often-disparate philosophies into one package.
The Actual Services
As e-commerce clients realize that they can build any commerce model they dream up, a lot of the hype surrounding interactive companies is falling away. Clients want an agency that can deliver all the parts for whatever e-commerce projects are dished up. So what are the actual "end-to-end" services that Web customers need?
The most prominent service is management consulting. Large companies like Andersen Consulting, McKinsey, and PriceWaterhouse Coopers do this kind of work. This type of service delivers the big picture of a business vision, but not its actual implementation.
Marketing consultants like Ogilvy & Mather or Saatchi & Saatchi usually pick up the implementation, which consultants refer to as "enabling." These companies are typically the ad agencies that execute media planning, marketing plans, and ad campaigns.
