Meredith, the magazine publisher, is taking on functions of ad agencies, as the Wall Street Journal describes in detail today. It’s a smart move by Meredith and it’s inevitable as we shift from selling scarcity to selling service to marketers. Meredith is taking on the functions of a creative agency. In a networked media ecosystem, I also think that media companies will take on the functions of the media-buying side.
See also this piece arguing that a company should invest not in marketing but in its relationships with customers.
Just two anecdotes in the ongoing shift that will hit the ad industry just the way it has hit media.
(Disclosure: Meredith brought me to Iowa to talk about WWGD? last year.)
