What's Next: Digital Moves To The Front

Part of my responsibilities at Y&R is business development. Been doing it for years at several agencies, including the old Bates Worldwide (used to love walking into the Chrysler Building) and The Kaplan Thaler Group.

So I track agency reviews very closely, so have obviously watched with interest all of the major car reviews over the past decade or so.

Mitsubishi put their $185 account into review a few months ago.

Now, you need to know that car accounts are highly coveted within the agency business. Big media spend. Opportunity to do great work. They are trophy accounts.

And normally you would see any and all of the major agencies going hard after a car account in review for all of those reasons.

That's why I found it interesting that when the list of finalists was announced that there was really only one "major" shop, DDB/LA, and they are not considered a major national player vs. DDB's NY and Chicago offices. The other finalists are independents Ignited in El Segundo, WongDoody in Seattle and Culver City and Traffic in Los Angeles.

Then I read this:

The Cypress, Calif.-based automaker spent $185 million in U.S. measured medai in 2007, per Nielsen Monitor-Plus, though sources said the client has been clear about future plans to increase digital communications and cut back on broadcast. (Online spending quintupled to $10 million in the last three years, and incumbent Organic's digital creative portion of the business is also up for review.)

Digital once again has shown itself to be the tip of the spear. And it also shows that large marketers may think that the smaller, more nimble independents have a greater grasp on what's happening with digital than the big shops.

An interesting trend to watch and a telling indication of what you should already know: digital is the at the forefront of what clients are looking for in an agency partner.