The Lab. A media arts company.

It’s no secret that more and more industry leaders are taking steps recently to improve work flows by taking advantage of the smaller, more flexible and nimble agencies and vendors. As smaller firms prove their ability to approach creative storytelling in ways that the traditional ad media are not equipped for, executives on the client side are taking notice and making adjustments to utilize these more integrated shops.

In a recent Ad Week Article  Dana Anderson, the SVP of marketing strategy and communications at Kraft, talks about leading a sea of change for the company when it comes to the way they handle agency relationships. “Something that’s real interesting that we’ve seen in shops that have been formed in the last five or 10 years—people who came certainly from the advertising industry—is this holistic view.” she said. “I know that sounds simple but that they solve the whole problem, that they look at it as a whole cloth and bring to you that answer.” She goes on to talk about how their creative roster has gone from using larger global agencies to including smaller more integrated firms like Droga 5 and Taxi to name a few.

The agency side is also making changes to shift the way client relationships are maintained. For example the Toronto-based ad holding company MDC Partners recently anointed it’s first chief procurement officer Brett Colbert - a position once solely reserved for the client side of the business. “What I hope to do,” notes Colbert in a recent Ad Age Article, “is discuss with client procurement the measures that truly matter and what is used to define success, because not all metrics are useful and in fact some may be misleading. What I’d like to focus on is spend maximization rather than cost reduction.”

As the model changes for clients, the more integrated client to agency approach will require an increasingly integrated production vendor who understands these changes. At thelab we feel we understand these developments and our integrated structure lends itself to easily working within the needs of these types of clients. As noted by Colbert in the Ad Age article, cost maximization will be at the center of these discussions as agencies look to use new technologies and approaches to creatively expand their client’s communication reach. Vendors will have to adapt by executing more holistic and affordable multi level productions  that incorporate real analytics. That means executing on agency needs in a way that the traditional, single service production company simply does not have ability to do. We look forward to seeing more of this kind of change.