Forrester Calls for 'Connected Agency'

In yet another rebuke of traditional advertising agencies, Forrester Research believes today's ad agencies are not well-structured to take on tomorrow's marketing challenges, needing to move from making messages to establishing community connections. In a new report, the research firm paints a grim view of the current state of advertising, which it believes is in "a world of hurt" because consumers are tuning out the messages the industry is predicated on producing.

Instead, it believes shops need to be organized around communities, not disciplines. What it is calling "the connected agency" would not only know certain communities but also be active members of these groups. Pushing messages would give way to encouraging voluntary engagement, and ongoing conversations would replace time-based campaigns.

In Forrester's view, most people rely on advice from friends and others in their various communities to make product decisions, while using tech tools to tune out ad messages they deem irrelevant. On top of that, consumer media choice has made the notion of a "captive audience," other than during some sporting events, a thing of the past.

Forrester sees agencies made up of community members -- moms, for instance, helping Procter & Gamble play a constructive role in communities of other mothers.

Savy marketers have long known that building a digital profile customers can lead to a high ROI. This new reocmmendation is an interesting idea to help traditional advertising agencies evolve in a Web 2.0 world.