What's Old Is New

Agency Consolidation May Be On The Way As Creative And Media Come Together Again.

- Lindsay Rittenhouse

Last June, a bizarre campaign known as “IHOb” had social media users buzzing about the possibility of the International House of Pancakes turning into the International House of Burgers ... or Bacon? Biscuits?

That stunt garnered 1.2 million tweets and over 15,000 earned media stories in 10 days and was the result of a true collaborative effort on the parts of both media and creative—IPG agencies Initiative and Droga5, respectively. Initiative, earning a place on Adweek’s list of Best Media Plans of 2018 for the effort, saw the need to make IHOP into more than a weekend breakfast destination and was behind a series of mysterious social media posts that led to the debut of the chain’s Ultimate Steakburgers. The latter was unveiled in Droga5’s creative.

“We collaborate very closely with Initiative, and they have been excellent partners in helping us not only get to better work but in making sure it has the biggest impact and reach,” said Droga5 chief media officer Colleen Leddy. “The partnership is especially valuable in that we are truly partners: We look for solutions together and generally come together with a joint [point of view].”

With the emergence of new technologies and advanced marketing capabilities driven by data and analytics, and as a new generation of agency leaders rises, partnerships in which media and creative agencies work closer in tandem for clients are becoming the norm. Clients are increasingly consolidating their advertising needs with one agency or holding company, and it has some speculating whether this will eventually result in creative and media being placed under the same roof again.