They have a role to play - but should understand what it is and not pretent they know what they're doing... when they don't !!

Like 'pure play' agencies some are good at one thing
and others another.

On 16:23:53 13 October 2000 paul wrote:
>Do traditional agencies have a role to play in new media?
>Has a 'new business paradigm' (buzz words used
>ironically!) levelled the playing field? As clients become
>more savvy some of the old-boys will find it increasingly
>difficult to carry on as normal and how many big-name
>agencies have tried to 'bolt-on' an interactive arm only
>to find that its not about just adding skillsets and more
>fundamentally, just replicating offline ideas. Is it true
>that London's HTML night school classes are oversubscribed
>with senior Creative Directors? and that sales of Front
>Page are booming in Soho?
>
>Do they/you 'Get it'? - not always. Proof is at hand - a
>list of interactive ignorance based on actual experiences
>- send in your entries and I'll tally them up and post a
>chart - NO ACTUAL NAMES PLEASE. The first two:
>
>1 - A traditional branding agency (major player)
>producing style guidelines that ignore digital assets -
>Using 20 similar colours as global branding elements that
>are impossible to replicate on screen let alone as
>websafe.
>
>2 - (By no means unique) An agency insisting that the 100k
>Flash splash-screen was vital to the brand experience of
>their client - the download was deemed less important than
>the 'experience', which for some reason was separate from
>the wait.
>
>More to come.
>
>A quick caveat - Yes, there are traditional firms who have
>transformed themselves and are bringing depth of
>experience, knowledge and skills to digital media - they
>just seem to be few and far between at the moment.