The news that Scott Whybin was stepping away from the agency that still holds his name, 21 years after he founded it, shocked many.
It was also somewhat surprising he was leaving not to retire, but to start a new venture, with Whybin seemingly set to be a lifer at the agency with his name. Whybin wants to create what he calls “marketing-based business evolution”, explaining that this will still involve making ads, but he doesn't want to “just” make ads. It's about creating and valuing IP.
Whybin is one of those ad land veterans who is not afraid to speak his mind, and this occasion was no different. He made a dig at cost cutting, and on the way out the door he told AdNews that “respect for advertising had waned” and what the industry needed to focus on now was valuing intellectual property and making sure it was top of the list.
He said at the time: “Respect for Intellectual property and value has gone out the window … but it can change businesses. There are agencies that are just whoring around for the lowest fee, but I want to change the way IP is perceived and valued.”
I don't disagree with Whybin, he's spoken before about how important remuneration for agencies is and that it's about time those in this business stop undercutting each other and start charging appropriately for what they do.
But I'm not sure I agree that respect for IP has flown out the window. I started writing about this industry a little over two years ago now, and since then every time I went to talk to an agency they all said: “We don't just make ads.” Some are of course better at walking the talk. It's undeniable that agencies are now doing more than just 60-second spots.
Possibly the most talked about IP example is, M&C's Clever Buoy, but more than that the agency set up a whole arm dedicated to innovation and developing IP, Tricky Jigsaw. Since its work for Optus, the agency has also developed the paint which gave a car a heartbeat for Lexus among other things.
M&C aren't alone in this, with Publicis and ZenithOptimedia launching startup consultancy, Drugstore, last year to get its clients closer to thinking like a startup, so they can come up with ideas to survive disruption. Work just doesn't have to come from an innovation lab for it to be different to the advertising mould. Saatchi and Saatchi's reinvention of the eye test for children, Penny the Pirate, has received several awards because this work was not only creative and effective, but it also changed the way parents can check if their children need to have their eyes tested.
There's also been some recent examples of work that transcends ads that have come from Whybin's own agency. The recent work Whybin\TBWA has done for ANZ around the #equalfutures campaign well and truly transcends the traditional definition of advertising. This work started out as an internal business commitment from the bank which saw it make changes to its super contributions for female employees and implementing different recruiting processes and flexible working practises. From this came a social movement, and then ads.
Whybin isn't alone in this type of work. There are countless examples of work which doesn't centre around marketing collateral, rather working with the whole c-suite to drive hard business objectives and true innovation.
Maybe agencies need to do a better job of selling themselves, and highlighting this work over more traditional ads. There is a gap around charging appropriately for IP and work that doesn't fit the mould of traditional ads, but that's another conversation.
But I do feel agencies are doing it, or at least trying to. Like everything, these shifts away from what has always been done takes time, but that doesn't mean it isn't being done.