Major brands want to be in the content business. For that, you don't need an agency of any size as we currently know them. IBM wants to advance the concept of "branded journalism." The Got Milk? folks now want consumers to play games that lead them to trivia questions about milk's benefits. Budweiser wants us all to watch BudTV. And P&G is all about Home Made Simple.

The list could go on. Content can drive engagement and interactive strategies in my opinion should be all about engagement. Engagement drives community. From that perspective content is a logical pursuit. But it just isn't a project for a big agency. So that's why we're trashing big agencies?

Technology is also another intention for big brands. Take a look at Amazon's Endless.com if you want to see the kind of technology that makes big brands drool. If CPG brands can embrace internet technologies to magnify the packaging and design that are so critical to their branding efforts, the entire approach to branding can be reinvented. What if the rollover technology that enables the fine design points of the shoes on Endless.com could magnify the promotional code for a points-based loyalty campaign? What if that same technology could call attention to the nutritional information on a breakfast cereal?

Once again, however, technology is not necessarily what the big agencies do well. So big brands are looking elsewhere, casting about through the fog.