A report from the 2005 management conference of the American Association of Advertising Agencies contains many interesting predictions of change, but I don’t think they are grappling with the real problem. Advertising agencies have always wanted to serve the target audience, but they are paid by the advertisers who desparately want to get their message out and find it easier to shout louder than to find the right thing to say.

Warnings Galore That Madison Avenue Needs to Be Nimble About Changing – New York Times by Stuart Elliott (reg required)

"Throwing out a business model that has worked in the past takes just as much guts, just as much courage, perhaps even more so, than starting a business from scratch," said Mr. Berger, who is also chief executive and chief creative officer of the New York and San Francisco offices of Euro RSCG Worldwide.

Another challenge to the industry, identified by the leader of a large media services agency, will be for those at advertising agencies to reimagine how they produce campaigns to reflect how consumers are, as he put it, "ignoring messages with increasing frequency."

"Get past the notion the advertising process is an assembly line," said Jack Klues, chief executive of the Starcom MediaVest Group in Chicago…"We have to stop arguing about who owns the process," Mr. Klues said. "The consumer is boss, and there is plenty of room for anyone who can get us closer to the boss.

"The challenge for our industry is to make advertising a business of ideas," Mr. Nadal said, "instead of a business of ads and their distribution."

"What clients want most are ideas, innovation, creativity," he added, while all too often agency leaders have a "focus on money rather than on results for clients."

"The most successful people in this industry are not motivated to come to work every day to make the most profits," Mr. Nadal said, but rather to come up with the best ideas.