Howdy hey ,

A shorter story today since we all know everyone's done working at noon to start watching some college basketball...

Whenever the business world experiences some major shift, talking heads emerge to soothsay doom for the agency model. Why, just in the past decade, the agency model has died and been reborn like a pesky zombie:

• "The death of the AOR is near," cried AdAge in 2015.
• "Keep up with technology or close up," warned PR Week in 2017.
• "Social has dismantled the traditional agency model," declared Sprout Social in 2018.
• "COVID is killing the agency model," said PeoplePerHour (and many others) in 2020.
• "Digital agencies die in 2024," the Wall Street Journal bet (ooo, top-tier coverage!).

Nowadays, it's newsroom layoffs, AI's emergence, the rising power of independent contractors, or any of a hundred reasons agencies are going the way of the dodo.

What's common between these portents of doom is that each change in how we do business influences the value exchange between agencies and clients. Social media disrupted traditional communication channels. COVID disrupted the roles companies played in public life. Technology disrupted the skills and abilities we demand from account teams — and what clients want from trusted agency partners.

And through all of this, agencies either adapt to the value clients seek...or die (or, at least, fall behind the pack leaders).

Rise like the phoenix

None of this is different from other industries. Companies have to evolve. It might take a few months or a few decades, but eventually, the future comes for us all.

The agency model is just easy to pick on. You're particularly sensitive to positive and negative industry changes, and it keeps that value exchange in regular flux. If margins are tight, you have to identify current value, anticipate future value, and provide services to exceed client expectations on both—and do it quickly.

So, is the agency model dead or dying? Nah, the model is fine. But agencies die when they get sclerotic. When they refuse to change because it's hard, or it bucks "time-honored tradition." Change is persistent, and agencies constantly swimming against that current eventually get swept away.

Staying limber as an agency requires a culture that champions activities like customer listening, new service experimentation, and proactive success management. You can't wait for problems to arise; you have to solve your client's challenges before they even know they exist.

The good news is that you can transform the pressure to change from a frustrating process into useful experiments that teach you quickly. For instance, if you think clients will soon need better thought leadership content that blends unique opinions with proprietary research, you can whip up a quick program, sell it a few times, and see where you land.

When those experiments fail, you dust yourself off and try again. But it's in the failure that we learn the best lessons, and what lets us adapt our services to match what clients really need.

Be what your clients need you to be, and you will always be valuable — no matter your model.

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Stellar content about content

The PR agency-client model is broken. Here's how communicators can adapt.

By Amanda Guisbond and Rachel Huff, on PR Daily

This fits nicely with our discussion of agency models. Amanda and Rachel highlight key strategies for keeping your clients front and center in your relationships. Above all else, proactivity matters.

By "proactivity," I mean that you, the agency leader, are raising questions to your clients. You know what they think about your relationship. You ensure your team is meeting performance criteria. You lead the charge on improving problems and celebrating wins.

Don't sit back on your haunches and wait for things to collapse. Agencies can provide much value by treating clients well and solving small issues before they become big problems.

Your Action Item: Evaluate how you're building a client relationship — and I mean, really interrogate your process and outcomes. Are you leading candid conversations with client teams? Do you feel empowered to do that?

If you're an agency leader, this is worth a conversation in your ELT meetings. If you're an IC, this is how you become a leader. Identify little things you can give your client and pepper those into status calls and project deliverables.

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‘Failure and innovation are inseparable twins’: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos offers 7 leadership principles

By Taylor Soper, GeekWire

Good lessons in this article (back from 2016), but it's a reminder that you must try and fail to learn and grow. Much of that is getting past the fear of failure. From the article:

Bezos said that everybody wants to be inventive, whether it’s a corporation, a startup, a government agency — “people like invention,” he said.

But the problem is, people also are afraid of failure.

“If you already know it’s going to work, it’s not an experiment,” Bezos said. “Only through experimentation can you get real invention. The most important inventions come from trial and error with lots of failure.”

Whether it's pilot testing a content program, launching a new PR initiative, or hiring for a new role, you've gotta step up to bat and swing if you wanna hit home runs.

Your Action Item: What are you not trying yet? Sit down and write yourself a one-page Plan to Activate:

• What do you want to do?
• What would success look like in 30 days? 90 days?
• What resources do you need to do it?
• What might failure look like? (Don't skip this; you must get comfy with things going wrong!)

This document gives you the basic parameters to start your experiment. Then, get to work, fail, and rebuild as you go.

Content from my pocket of the galaxy

🗒️ Devising Your Content Pilot Test



So you wanna offer content to clients. Awesome! How much content can you produce? What kinds? Is anybody interested? How much will it cost? Do you have the right budget? What production gaps do you need to fill?

So many questions. And if you want them answered, you need to run yourself a content experiment.

Let's devise your content pilot test. Start with strategic objectives and experimental parameters. Quantify your market and identify available resources. Do some creatin' and measure meticulously. Rinse and repeat.

Your Action Item: Check out the video for your detailed guide to a well-executed pilot test.

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Enjoy the start of NCAA March Madness and the inevitable bracket-busting. Thanks for reading!

See you soon,

Alex