Pyramids Inverted

The Wall Street Journal chimes on the shifting dynamics underway in the agency world.

Facing unprecedented upheaval in the advertising and media industries, big ad holding companies and their agency units are rethinking how they’re organized. Under pressure from marketers, agencies are starting to restructure operations by aligning their creative sides with less glamorous parts of their businesses such as marketing services — which include direct mail and in-store advertising — and media-buying and planning. Moreover, with just about everyone eager to increase the use of Web marketing, traditional agencies are quickly snapping up digital marketing firms or hiring experienced digital staffers.

The Journal goes on to name five “agencies” to watch in 2007: Modernista, Neo@Ogilvy, Universal McCann, Draft FCB and Google. Having Google in this list makes the article’s premise all the more real. For Google being mentioned with these other four, proves times truly have changed.
In a separate piece on Digitas, Wall Street’s newspaper says:

The world’s biggest advertisers increasingly are turning to interactive technologies to define their brand, and the big ad holding companies are snapping up these onetime boutiques. The Publicis deal gives Digitas the global clout to potentially shape the industry’s future, say its executives. But the challenge will be to retain its competitive edge in the confines of a traditional advertising company. All this makes Digitas and its chief executive, David Kenny, who will oversee Publicis’s overall digital and interactive strategy, worth watching in 2007.

Digitas is said to have 150 positions open, ranging from entry-level associates to directors with at least five years of experience.