There’s a piece in yesterday’s MarketingWeek (attached above) by David Wethey of Agency Assessments about the rise – and predicted fall – of creative independent ad agencies. He observes that in recent times the independents have been making the running in new business terms and that clients are increasingly trusting big brands to the so-called ‘micro-networks’. Clearly, with global wins from Coca-Cola, P&G, EA Games, the Nike account in China and big local clients here in the UK like Honda and Pizza Hut, Wieden + Kennedy has of late been one of the beneficiaries (or drivers, depending on your point of view) of this trend.

Ad Age meanwhile, in its Agency of the Year issue of January 9^th, headlines its report on W+K with ‘Wieden becomes a global power’ and notes that Dan Wieden believes our independence is the force behind that success, along with the way we’ve built our network from scratch rather than through acquisition.

David Wethey goes on in his article to suggest that the current success of the independents may not last, for a number of reasons: the difficulty of balancing growth with maintaining quality standards, the greed of the founders who want to sell up to a big network and cash in, and influence of the big media groups. He predicts that because of continuing consolidation of media spend into a small number of big buyers, those buyers will increasingly be able to prevail on big clients to combine pitches for media and creative, thereby cutting out independent creative agencies who are not part of the big media houses’ holding companies.

I’m not sure about this.  Our recent experience would suggest that while big clients may want the economies of scale and the reliable distribution network that a big media house with offices all over the world can provide, many of them recognise that when it comes to creative agencies, it’s not about having a lot of talent, it’s about having the best talent.

It’s the talent and the work that’s driving the appointment of the independents. I hope and believe that these things will continue, for a significant number of clients, to be more important than the convenient one-stop shop solution offered by the holding groups. Many of them are happy to split out the key creative and strategic work to a smaller shop and give the administrative international distribution job to a traditional network. (Obviously, this is a bad thing for the margins of the traditional network as, unlike breakthrough creative thinking, the distribution is a commodity service that doesn’t commend a premium. This is probably why WPP, with its Red Cell/Voluntarily United/Whatever They’re Called Now micro-network is trying to create a sort-of independent lookalike within the holding company. “You don’t need to go to Wieden’s – we’ve got our own one of those creative hot shop things.”) And my guess is that it’s that admin part of the business that the media shops might be able to influence clients to move into the same group as their media.

Of course, unlike David, I’m speaking from a point of view of vested interest. I could be totally wrong about this.

I wonder what anyone else out there thinks. Let us know.

The experimental first attempt at WK Side, held in the last quarter of 2005, was a success. So we’re going to do it again, in a revamped and improved version of our original intention: to bring in people from outside the world of advertising for three months to work at Wieden + Kennedy London on everything from client briefs to internal projects. In the process, we learn a fresh perspective from them and they learn about the ad industry from us.

Dear X

It was great meeting you for the WKSide interviews and we are delighted to be able to offer you a place on the second WKSide scheme starting in January 2006.

The start date for your group will be 16^th January and the scheme will last for three months.

Here are the four new Siders who start on Monday and who will keep you posted on their progress via this blog.

Barbara, 27. Followed dreams to London. Studied graphic design in Australia and worked in illustration, magazines, design and advertising. Loves drawing, making things, art, travel, films, bars, and finding inspiration and humour everywhere. Terrible barmaid, but bakes a mean pecan pie. Almost understands offside rule. Hopes never ever to work as a barmaid again. Bad things: Once flooded an entire function centre. (You have been warned.) Hates burnt coffee, close- talkers, and Hits CDs. On a good day, loves pretty much everything else. Wants to do great things.

Hi, I’m Ben, 23 from West London and have just finished a multimedia design degree in Leicester. For $$ I work on graphic and web design projects for people like www.monorex.com . . . Fun things I like doing is to make hip-hop music and music videos and write rhymes with my boys the ‘Infallibles Foundation’ – BIG UP! hit up www.infallibles.co.uk/foundation for the sounds… I skateboard outside when dry & sunny and listen to music/eat nice food inside when cold/wet. I don’t hate much. If I told you my most embarrassing moment it is sure to ruin any possibility of a) being looked at eye to eye, and b) you wanting me to work for you. I wouldn’t even tell my brother. So here’s a second most embarrassing moment – I was running, front on, to a bus just about to leave at a busy Acton bus stop full of the usual loons when I accidentally joined their hordes by running full pelt into the ‘elephant ear’ style wing mirrors, cracking my head loudly and hard enough that the driver had to get out his cabin and fix it whilst ‘actual’ crazy people laughed at me,,, not too embarrassing really but it was damn funny. I am commonly found at parties free styling at young ladies who think stringing an abstracted sentence together is like sooooooo amazing! Ha-ha.

Hello. I’m Sophie. Here’s a little bit about me:

I’m from South East London. I did a graphic design degree in Nottingham, but I also made films. Ideas are important to me. I’m 22, but people always think I look younger. I really like pasta. My mum is English and my dad is American. I only realised in the last year how much I like parsnips. I don’t like feet or grading things on a scale of one to ten. When I was a little kid I had wonky eyes, but now they are straight. I like music but I never learnt to play an instrument very well, although I did try. I like to take photographs. My hands are cold most of the time.

Ok, that’s it for now. Bye.

I’m the other Ben (Everitt). I grew up in Lewes, just outside of Brighton. I moved to London to study at Camberwell where I’ve been ever since.

I like football on Saturday afternoons, papers on Sunday mornings, sausages and Peter Blake.

My pet hates are Harry Redknapp and milky tea.

My most embarrassing moment was making a loud gagging noise due to an unpleasant garlic mushroom during the speeches at my gran’s 80th birthday.
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