• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, May 27, 2014

According to Business Insider, New York-Based Huge is the slowest social media agency on the planet. That is, unless there's another agency out there that takes 45 days to send a tweet. Yes, you read that right. Forty-five days. Business Insider's intrepid reporter Aaron Taube "got a look inside" the New York offices of Huge and learned how the agency took 45 days to craft and post a tweet for the client President Cheese. Now to be fair to Huge, all of this was born out of the fact that what Taube wrote about was not the creation of a tweet but the creation of planned elements of the brand's social media campaign. And the fact that whoever wrote that BI headline was more concerned with sensationalism than actual fact. We're pretty sure Huge is not pleased with that BI headline, but they should know there are plenty of us out there who know the difference between reality and Upworthy-style sensationalism.

So Twitter struck anotheragency deal this week. This time it was a $230 million mobile-focused deal with Omnicom. The deal will integrate the agency's programmatic buying with Twitter's ad exchange, MoPub. This is but one of many deals agencies have made with Twitter and Facebook and they have been headline grabbers. But you know what? When was the last time you saw a headline about an upfront deal an agency or brand made with a TV network? Can't think of one, right? Because it's not news. And neither are these agency deals with social media platforms. They're simply upfront buys. Yeah, that's all. Media buys. 

Minneapolis-based Carmichael Lynch doesn't like "Mad Men." Rather, more accurately, they don't like how the show portrays advertising as a cutthroat business. Rather, even more accurately, the agency says "Mad Men" could never have been shot in Minneapolis because, as Chief Creative Director Dave Damman says: “This is one of the rare cities where you can be friends with people at other agencies.” Now wait a minute, Mr. Damman. Are you saying New Yorkers are a bunch of mean-spirited, antagonistic bulldogs who don't know how to mingle and have fun together? Clearly, you've never been to an advertising-related social function in New York! Or Boston. Or San Francisco. Or Chicago. Maybe you ought to get out more.

Oh, but wait. Maybe Damman is right about agencies being insular and cutthroat. In a piece on collaboration between agencies and brands, Tom Fels, group managing director at South Africa-based Machine, ponders the inability of ad agencies to leave their competitive fears at the door, truly embrace collaboration, and as an industry, actually create something outside the agency/client silo. Tough as cross-agency collaboration may be, Fels believes it is crucial to the survival of the agency model. He writes: "To my mind, it is not only an opportunity but also a responsibility, given the rapid pace of change in the industry and the continually depleting value extraction agencies are currently faced with. Without a significant readjustment, we will more likely be victims to a predictable future than pioneers of a new age in creativity."

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