Industry: Ad Agency Deathwatch: R/GA

Today's NY Times features a profile of Robert Greenberg and R/GA (Interpublic).

Read "Madison Avenue's 30-Second Spot Remover" here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/12/business/yourmoney/12adman.html?pagewanted=1&th&emc=th


While the article is no shocking reveleation, some interesting background on the R/GA business model are detailed, and some quotes are worth noting.

Read excerpts below:

John Stratton, the chief marketing officer for Verizon, an R/GA client, offered a withering assessment of traditional advertising, warning agencies that they were failing to grapple with the realities of alternative media.

"Major money is going to be in motion in the next decade and yet no one really understands exactly where it will land, or even if it will land, or just disappear altogether," he said at an Advertising Age conference in Beverly Hills, Calif. "Your clients are in trouble. They are looking to you to save them."

BUT authentically new approaches are in short supply, Mr. Stratton added, saying that the advertising models that have taken shape over the last 50 years "no longer work."

Some examples of advertising's cutting edge future are also offered by Greenberg:

"quick response codes embedded on movie posters that allow trailers to be downloaded directly onto cellphones placed near them; billboards used by companies like Dove that let consumers vote on themes or messages by cellphone; instant messaging and ads streamed through game consoles like Xbox or online gaming networks; and wireless services like Dodgeball that help people find peers at bars and restaurants within a 10-block radius after they pinpoint their own location by sending a short text message to the service."

see more from John Stratton's videotaped speech, here:
http://adage.com/news.cms?newsId=47867