I’m worried.

This post originally appeared in Alejandra Owens’ weekly, The Commuter’s Club. If you aren’t signed up, you should be.

I worry about our industry.

Everywhere I look, I see wicked big problems.

From talent turning to different industries for a better paycheck (another example) to outdated billing structures driven by procurement’s feast to increase margins. Or snake-oil players masquerading behind the rise of social to the many agency owners running their businesses about as good as a Ponzi scheme. Or the ad spend that has largely rebuilt the digital publication industry but is essentially worthless in the eyes of the very consumers it is intended to reach to just a few players really tapping into the shift to digital. Let’s not ignore the talent that fuels these agencies that increasingly doesn’t match or fails to empathize with the consumers of today and tomorrow. I can’t help but be concerned that the industry I love, the industry I toil in everyday, has lost its way.

Making all of this worse…We are either stumbling over ourselves trying to solve, incessantly complaining about, or simply turning a blind eye thinking these issues will magically fix themselves.

When are we going to really address these issues? When will the dialogue start amongst agencies, brands, and the thought leaders we hold on such high precipices around these problems? And I’m not talking about a blog post here, conference topic there, or a rallying cry via Twitter. These problems require every facet of the business to get in rooms and figure it out.

Via Alejandra Owens

Editor’s Note: Essentially, what Michael brings to light is the misalignment between agencies, the brands that hire them, and the consumers the brands want to reach. Outdated tactics, outdated business models, outdated talent pools does not a good partner make. Sure there will always be slow moving or slow to adopt brands and brand managers — but a good partner makes us better, they push us, and they understand our business so well that building a business case to try something new or different isn’t a hurdle that must be overcome.

When it comes to agency support and collaboration I expect agile teams that learn fast and bring fresh ideas to the table based not on the hottest tool of the moment but seasoned reasoning and a strong understanding of my business. I expect a diverse team on my account because my target audience is as diverse as ever. And while I know agencies need to make money, I’d prefer they didn’t always go back to tactics that make them money first, and piss off my audience next.

I see too little pride of ownership to be working on the account that was won and too much “that’s not my job” when it comes to how agencies help brands solve problems. Solving for one issue should strike a naturally occurring series of more problems to solve. The work is never done and it never requires just one tactic. Where are the partners that help brands solve the big, ugly problems — the ones that force us to examine ourselves and how we do business first? Those are the partners I want to work with — and the ones you should want to work with, too.

Happy Commuting,
Alejandra