Once again, what is an ad agency?

Mad Men is truly over. The idea of an advertising agency now contains multitudes. 

Two very recent observations:

1. Frank Cooper left Pepsi to become CMO at Buzzfeed. 

He says, “...there's a market failure, a gap in the market. If you look at what many of the agencies are doing or not doing, and what brands need, media companies will have to start to fill that gap by having an internal function [italics mine] that at least helps brands understand how to integrate more effectively into the content.” 

And by "internal function," he means an advertising agency.

This is not a new concept, of course. Buzzfeed joins almost every other major media outlet in offering clients the services of an agency. 

2. Alan Schulman has left Sapient to lead content design and production for Deloitte.

As AdAge notes, "Deloitte Digital is gunning for market share from more established agencies.” Schulman joins a team that, "now touts more than 5,000 staffers.” The guy who runs Deloitte Digital defines creative to mean: “Creative strategy, experience, content and technology.”

Deloitte got into the ad agency business several years ago. The Hollywood talent firm CAA took that same leap back in 1998. Clearly, those outside the ad industry see opportunities—and clients are obviously willing to pay for this evolution. 

As always, it has never mattered who comes up with a great idea. 

What matters are relationships, and trust, and situations fertile enough for great ideas to flourish.