Dear Colleague,

The phrase Advertising Agency no longer describes the agency business. Agencies today are into online games, mobile marketing, buzz marketing, events, sampling, Web sites, e-commerce, naming, packaging...you name it.

Yes, we still make ads, and great ones. In fact, we’re still known by the ads we do. In that sense we’re still ad agencies. But we’re more.

Face it — the market has moved beyond advertising. Declining media, the Internet, the third screen (cell phones), exploding communications technology and the rest of it have created a new world. According to the Economist, in 2004 consumers spent more to avoid advertising than we spent advertising to them.

So today’s agencies are using new ways to reach people, engage them and build relationships. Lots of new ways, lots of experimentation and no silver bullet. It’s an awesome and exciting new business.

So are we still agencies? You bet. But doing things in all sorts of new ways.