CGA: the creative destruction of agencies

Chris Peterson, founder of Chautauqua Communications, argues that clients no longer need conventional agency creative departments and disciplines.

CGA: the creative destruction of agencies

Chris Peterson

It is the spring of 2005 and the agency I am running in San Francisco – Publicis Dialog – is losing business. Not to other agencies. Not to client budget cuts. But to the very customers that our clients are trying to attract. When it started, I cannot be sure. I did not get a memo from the New York office and there were no announcements in the trade press.

What was happening was far more insidious. Our clients' customers were slowly taking over the marketing conversation. They were developing their own...

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