Though each interactive agency apears to be on a different trajectory in its pursuit to adopt the lead agency role either tomorrow, next year or 10 years from now, all industry experts contacted for this story agreed that traditional agencies are feeling the digital pinch.
"Clearly they're trying to scramble right now to preserve their turf by buying separate entities that are specialized in the digital space," says Borges of Deep Focus. (See WPP's acquisition of 24/7 Real Media and Publicis Groupe's purchase of Digitas as well as Google's acquisition of DoubleClick, Microsoft's acquisition of aQuantive and Yahoo's acquisition of Right Media as just a few examples.)
AgencyNet Founder and CEO Richard Lent describes the current traditional-digital agency relationship as a classic case of the tail wagging the dog, with television-, print- and outdoor-focused agencies determining overall strategy. Lent says it's just a matter of time until clients offer digital agencies the reins and the dog starts to wag the tail instead.
One industry expert contacted for this story similarly warned that the structure of traditional agencies prevents them from going forward in a digital market. Since many agencies operate separate media and creative departments, they're not well positioned to take advantage of such interactive tools as social media.
Still, other experts warn that a premature move to take on project management duties would dilute digital agencies' core mission of studying human behavior and modifying campaigns based on their discoveries. That's why 360i CEO Bryan Wiener says that leading multimedia campaigns isn't a key goal for his company in 2008 or even 2009.
"The market is clearly moving more toward digital, and when the time comes to augment, there are many people in the market who could help you with the televisions strategy," Wiener says. "But if digital is going to be at the core of many marketers' campaigns, then you're going to want an agency that has digital at its core."
"It's an extremely exciting time," Lavelle agrees. "There are a lot of opportunities. It's sort of like 1999 and 2000, except we're all sober. It's a great place to be."