Where are all the innovative ad agencies? Fast Company just published its list of the world's 50 most innovative companies. (It's not online yet.) The top three won’t surprise anyone—Google, Apple and Facebook. Naturally, I went looking for the brightest lights of agencydom. After all, the magazine’s criteria should be a readymade fit for agencies: “companies that dazzle with new ideas—and prove beyond a doubt how business is a force for change.” Fast Company musters a little love for the agency world. Anomaly checks in at No. 24, even though it goes to great pains in its blurb to say it’s not just an ad agency. (The magazine rightly praises Anomaly’s work for Virgin Atlantic, leaving out the inconvenient fact that it lost the account.) It’s not until No. 48 that another agency pops up: AKQA, lauded by Fast Company for combining creative ideas with the tech firepower to bring them to life. You won’t find the shops that usually win the laurels—no TBWA, no Goodby, no Droga5, and—wait for it—no Crispin Porter. Fast Company even passes over its favorite wall-breaking agency. —Posted by Brian Morrissey

February 15, 2008 in Morrissey | Permalink

Comments

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Because most agencies are still dinosaurs even though they profess innovation. Just adding some more digital or floating a few creative pet projects doesn't make you very breakthrough. The traditional agency structure looks antiquated, bloated and moribund and unable to adapt fast enough to be considered innovative.

Fast company might not blindly consume the bs pr we force feed ourselves in this industry either. Could be they see it and call it as it is, and from everyone else's perspective we don't look innovative.

Posted by: Len | Feb 15, 2008 12:52:24 PM

We're always going to be a slave to where we can purchase media. All advertising does is interrupt. Even an innovative interruption would not be necessarily viewed as particularly groundbreaking, nor should it. Excuse me, I have to go poke someone at the table next to me and tell them something they didn't particularly want to hear.

Posted by: thatguy | Feb 15, 2008 8:34:14 PM

Advertising the career is pretty much like advertising the product: What you see is not necessarily what you get. The advertising industry loves to yap about creativity like they own the creativity trademark, yet what the advertising industry produces is an annoying product that people actively try to avoid and is not really creative, nor innovative.

Posted by: Somebody | Feb 19, 2008 2:37:23 PM

Is IKEA in the top 50? I do love that crazy Poang chair.

Posted by: John | Feb 20, 2008 1:18:41 AM

The reason advertising agencies are not the most creative and innovative, as they so openly claim on their websites, is because their agency system and processes in place do not elicit creativity and innovative ideas from their people.

Quite frankly, I don't think there is an agency out there with a very sound system that elicits the maximum amount of creative potential from their employees.

Why? Because of egos and apathy. Everyone thinks their idea is the best, and nobody really cares about changing the system. They are afraid to challenge the status quo because if they do they might lose their jobs. It's "sheep" mentality.

Posted by: Light | Jul 24, 2008 4:40:44 PM

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