We actually did tell you so

We have to admit we’re feeling a little smug this week. In Alexandra Bruell’s cover story to the May 2, 2016, issue of Advertising Age, “The Agency of the Future,” the writer cites sources from Procter & Gamble’s CMO to Brad Jakeman at PepsiCo as wanting agencies to “rebundle” services from creative to data to media buying. She also cites…pretty much no one, from brand leaders to holding company bigwigs, contradicting the trend toward consolidated services into one agency partner.

In fact, Jakeman even predicts that the word “agency” will be replaced by “partner” to signify the New World Order. And Luke Taylor from DigitasLBi notes that this isn’t a trend that will be owned by big agencies, as Bruell quotes: “The big idea doesn’t benefit from size.”

All of this has us nodding our heads in that “I knew that idea before it got famous” sort of way. We formed Proper Villains as a fully integrated agency because we saw this future coming. We’d all worked for — and some of us ran — agencies and companies that had to operate in silos because, well, that’s the way it was. Creatives didn’t want to touch Excel spreadsheets. PR people were informed of marketing strategies, not invited to shape them. Technologists weren’t allowed to touch the crayons.

But data and its dance partner analytics changed everything. The ability to test and measure and understand what we all do — and the ability to square that understanding with strategic planning from the word go — made silos obsolete.

Bruell points this out in her article: “…data must inform creative, CRM, and media buying strategies tied to new commerce and brand experiences…” We couldn’t agree more — in fact, here’s how we’ve positioned the topic on our website since we launched:

Data drives insights, insights drive strategy, and strategy is at the heart of every successful brand; we forge strategy, creative, communications, media, and technology into business solutions that deliver transformative brand experiences.

We hate to say we told you so. No, really, we hate to say that. Instead we’re just thrilled to be among the small agency partners that is purpose built to be the agency of the future.