Adrian Trenholm

JWT and Carat: big firms taking baby steps

April 15th, 2005

Change is afoot in at the big advertising and media buying agencies. JWT , it seems, believes:

Advertising has a future, but only if we stop interrupting what people are interested in and be what people are interested in. We need to create work that people choose to spend time with.

Meanwhile, Carat is launching blog starter kits for its big name clients. Carat’s vice-president and national media director, John Cate says on Marketing Vox :

We want our clients to take part in a productive dialogue with serious, like-minded consumers that will be beneficial to both.

No more interuptions. Conversation. Dialogue. Could it be that the big name agencies are beginning to see the light? Maybe. Maybe not.

You see, if JWT want people to spend time with them, where’s their RSS feed? I take no credit for that question - just go and see James Governor’s latest post on Monkchips . Reminding us of Nick Wreden’s analysis at FusionBrand , James says this:

JWT does have a couple more steps to take in understanding and driving the attention economy from what I can see at a glance, and if you know more about the company’s decision to become more conversational please let me know. Authentic or not?

And what about Carat? Back in February, in the John Cate said:

Ads can cheapen and compromise a blog.

Yet, barely six weeks later, Mr Cate is in Brand Republic , saying:

For advertisers, blogs offer a number opportunities…

It’s good to see the big agencies going in the right direction, but one wonders why they have to make such a meal of it. There is such a contrast between the big agency approach and that of new blogger and regular commenter on 173 Drury Lane, Mark Pinkerton , or that of James and Steve at RedMonk .

Mark’s advice: forget the “blog starter kit,” just get a TypePad subscription. Redmonk offers:

Quick and dirty consultation on how RSS can put [conversational] strategy on steroids.

There, I think, is the problem for the big agencies: conversational marketing tools are light and cheap, they are “quick and dirty.”

The challenge for JWT and Carat et al is going to be making sufficient money out of an approach to marketing which does not, at first sight, fit the big agency mould. Do the big agencies have to rely on the “no-one ever got fired for buying IBM” factor? And will their clients pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for what I created in five minutes with WordPress?

The big agencies have woken up. They are taking baby steps. What are they going to do next?

Entry Filed under: Blogging , Marketing , Listening