The buzz over the past year has been that more and more, digital shops will start winning the overall global accounts and will dictate creative/strategy for the client, rather than the traditional shops winning the account and then siphoning off a percentage of the budget to the digital folks.

I feel like I’ve been somewhat of a traitor to my people on this one because I just haven’t been able to get on board and agree that we (interactive) should be leading the way. The other day I had breakfast with a colleague from a traditional agency in town and he brought up a recent client he heard of that chose a digital shop to manage its account over a traditional shop - and this was one of the biggest companies on the planet! But even still I just couldn’t see it, how could a client, which let’s say has a $100MM+ budget, decide to use a digital agency to lead the charge when most likely less than 20% of that budget will go to the digital side (and honestly, 20% is pretty generous)? How would a digital-focused agency be able to give direction to the traditional folks when they have such disdain for that side of the house?

Ah, but now I get it. In an article this month in Adweek, the writer tackles this subject and what struck me was the quote by Dare planning partner John Owen. He said:

The digital age is about the democracy of a good idea which can come from anywhere, including the consumer. So it’s about being more open and more collaborative, and having respect for the consumer’s contribution. Traditional agencies are used to control rather than collaboration and that’s where they are coming unstuck because they are finding it difficult to adapt to the new ways of working.

That’s it! It’s not necessarily that ideas that are interactive/web-based are more important than traditional media (though I’d love to debate that one), but more so that we as interactive agencies understand the new way to interact with the consumer. Traditional shops, because of their mediums, have almost no way of appreciating how powerful consumer interaction and collaboration can be. Digital shops get that, and that’s why they are continuing to take over.