• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, January 13, 2016

You've heard it all before, right? The agency model is dying. Silos must be blown up. Holding companies are monolithic dinosaurs that can't get out of their own way. Brands have launched Reviewmaggedon, which is shaking up the already tenuous relationships which existed between agencies and their clients.

And you've heard all the pundits and gurus prattle on incessantly about what must be done to right the sinking Titanic-like state of agency affairs. Faster, quicker, more nimble, able to leap tall buildings in a single...yeah, you've heard it all. But, wait, there's more!

Penning a piece for MarketingProfs, R2Integrated CEO Matt Goddard thinks he's finally cracked the nut. And it's all about becoming more military-like. Yes, that's right. 

Goddard advances the notion that agencies should be organized like the military is under the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command which oversees the elite units of the Army, Navy and Air Force under one general. 

Apparently that's supposed to be very different from a holding company overseeing the various disciplines under its purview. 

Apparently unhindered by that apparent similarity, Goddard says there are three distinct areas of marketing that need to be grouped together: brand strategy, demand generation and marketing technology. 

In the piece that advances the notion of the "special ops model of marketing,” he writes: "That trio simply mirrors the new organization of marketing departments. Surely you've heard all about the rise of the chief marketing technology officer, chief digital officer, chief strategy officer, chief experience officer, and their VP-level equivalents, all of whom report to the CMO. Those roles all fit into brand strategy, demand generation, and marketing technology. They are sub-commanders of these Special Ops group, to run with our metaphor. They need agency counterparts that want to adopt new strategies, techniques, and technologies."

And so I guess it's supposed to be all shock and awe; battalions of soldiers overseen by generals who launch campaigns designed to target specific goals. Well that’s nothing new, really. The marketing and ad world has always been filled with a sea of military metaphors so why not come at it from the same angle all over again. 

After all, the ad world is famous for creating new labels for doing the same thing over and over and over again.