Madison Avenue Revisited. The Final Verdict: Murder, not Manslaughter • We once believed that Holding Companies made accidental and inept decisions that weakened their agencies. Wrong. Agencies were deliberately milked. Clients need to rethink their agency relationships.

Holding Companies at a Crossroad • What is a holding company? A financial owner of weakening portfolio companies -- or an operating company with declining financial performance? What problems need to be fixed? Where?

How Did It All Go Wrong? • The advertising industry's Golden Age had prestige, success, profitability, and belief in the inherent value of creativity. There was magic in creativity. It was the only thing that mattered.

AI Will Decimate Agency Staffing and Fees. New Strategies are Required for Survival • AI can take at least 25% of creative agency fees and more than 40% of media agency fees. There is no way that agencies can "optimize" their way out of this situation. New strategies are required.

Madison Avenue's Coming Renaissance • AI will clean out the laggards. Agency survivers will prove to be strategic, consultative, creative, and focused on helping clients grow again. Re-training was required to upgrade agency skills.

Madison Avenue's Struggle to Reconcile "Creativity" and the lack of Client Brand Growth today • Procurement is achieving its objectives by promoting low-cost marketing. Brands, though, are struggling to grow. Is agency "creativity" working or not? What is the truth about the industry today?

David Ogilvy was a Huge Fan of Man-Hour Billing. He'd be Shocked by the State of the Industry Today • Agencies were receiving $435,000 in fees (in 2024 $s) for their work on a typical ad in 1992. This has dropped by more than 77%, and creatives now crank out hundreds of inconsequential ads per year.

Madison Avenue Can Transform Itself -- if Marketers and Agencies Agree to Solve the Real Problem Plaguing their Relationships • The industry has pursued "low cost" digital / social solutions," when the real problem is the lack of brand growth for the past 15 years.

The Astonishing Growth of Dividends at WPP, IPG and Omnicom highlights their Business Model Problem • Not only do holding companies have to liquidate talent through annual downsizings -- they must pay growing levels of dividends to shore up share prices. How long can this go on?

Madison Avenue's "Proxy Problem" -- Today's Key Metrics Do Not Correlate with Brand Sales • Advertisers have always used proxy measures -- from TV measures of audience size to click-through rates. Current digital measures give false indications of success. Brands are not growing.

Does Marketing Still Believe in Brand Growth? • If brand growth is no longer possible, then the current focus on cost reduction makes sense. But if brand growth is possible, then cost reduction is the wrong strategy.

Three Unsolved Strategic Problems for Madison Avenue • There won't be a future if agencies can't 1) help clients grow their brands again, by 2) rebuilding agency strategic capabilities and 3) generating growing income in an AI-dominated world.

CMOs in the Crosshairs -- Can A Different Media Mix Restore Brand Growth? • Does personalized targeting / programmatic advertising really work? Legacy brand growth significantly slowed when the industry shifted from traditional to digital/social advertising fifteen years ago.

Once upon a time, highly "creative ads" drove client and agency financial success. This is no longer the case. It's time to redefine "creativity." • What's needed? "Creative thinking to solve brand performance problems." This requires focus and a mix of consulting, technology and creative skills.

When Will Procurement Do What It Is Supposed to Do? • Before entering the media industry, Procurement worked in manufacturing and distribution to reduce complexity and improve supplier-client relationships. The opposite is true today in media.