Some time ago, "Infrastructure Week" became a catch-all to mock the perpetual political dysfunction of the past four years. But that joke isn't funny anymore.
Continuing to ignore much-needed improvements to the nation's infrastructure courts life-threatening catastrophe, particularly as climate change exacerbates extreme weather events such as the frigid cold front that afflicted most of the continental U.S. last week.
In Ad Age contributor Julie Liesse's annual report "2021 Forecast," industry analysts examine whether the disruption trends of 2020 are here to stay, including how they will continue to affect agency life. (Ad Age Insider subscribers can download the trend report here.)
“Pre-pandemic, there’s always been the assumption that agencies would thrive best in urban environments," Forrester analyst Jay Pattisall told Liesse. "But the cost of real estate, combined with the shift to working from home, is going to challenge the assumption that a high-dollar piece of real estate is required to operate an agency. And that may mean the business may no longer be congregated around the top 10 cities in the U.S.”
Forrester estimates that by the end of 2021, agencies will have cut more than 50,000 employees from the industry workforce—with several possible results, Pattisall said. First, agencies will need to fill the obvious talent drain. Second, the availability of so much unemployed talent will make freelance resources more attractive. Finally, more routine functions will be automated; Forrester predicts 10% to 12% of agency tasks will be automated by 2023.