Chan Suh And The Fall Of Agency.com

Agency.com. Sigh. After they put those videos of their Subway pitch on YouTube, we lost all taste for the shop. The Wall Street Journal is reporting on the agency’s struggle to deal with a string of executive departures (Don Scales in 2006) and major clients (Miller, Visa, Discovery) over the past 18 months. Owned by the mothership Omnicom Group, Agency.com has brought back Chan Suh chief executive. He had given up day-to-day management in 2004.

Agency.com hasn’t won a pitch in almost forever it seems. Suh is attempting to rectify that by attempting to turn the agency into an “idea” shop. Yeah, yeah… Yawn. Who the hell isn’t trying to brand their company as such? The article goes on to talk about other ad infinitum concepts in the industry like convergence of digital and traditional teams within agencies. Double yawn.

The WSJ then asks Sarah Fay, CEP of Carat and Isobar what she thinks of the struggling agency. “They’ve had an enormous amount of upheaval. [To survive] requires not just having a story of what the company wants to be, but why that is a position for the future…and is that backed up in reality? Is the company prepared to invest?”

Sarah is aces with us. She doesn’t just go in there and rip her competitor to shreds. Very classy, lady.

Read the entire article here.

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