Think you know agency-speak? Take our transformational quiz

Forget “Mad Men.” Hollywood will offer its take on the future of the agency business in “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts,” coming to the big screen next year from Paramount. Ok, so the movie—part of the sci-fi series playing off Hasbro’s Transformers toys—isn’t about agencies. But it might as well be. Agency companies are in a remarkable period of transformation. How do we know that? Because they keep saying it. Truth well trolled. See Ad Age Datacenter Agency Report 2022 Stories, rankings, stats Click here Stagwell, the agency company created by the merger of MDC Partners and Stagwell Marketing Group, says it’s “the challenger network built to transform marketing.” Publicis Groupe mentioned “transformation” eight times in an earnings release. And then there’s WPP, which cited “transformation” 104 times in its 2021 annual report (up from 64 mentions in the 2020 report). It proclaims: “WPP is the creative transformation company.” Transformation is a buzzword employed by agency companies to tout their credentials for guiding the marketing metamorphosis of clients and to explain sweeping internal reorganizations. WPP’s annual report, for example, explains: “Our transformation programme is designed to simplify our operating model, generate efficiencies in procurement and real estate, and improve the effectiveness of our support functions and shared services.” The transformation buzz has been trending in the biz over time for marketers, agencies and consultancies. Publicis jumped on the catchword in 2014 when it laid out a vision in a webcast pitching its evolution “from a digital leader to a business, marketing, communication, transformation leader.” Maurice Levy, then-CEO (and now chairman of the supervisory board) at Publicis, said in a 2015 earnings release: “To avoid their businesses being ‘uberized,’ companies find themselves having to rethink their business model, their marketing and even the channels through which they distribute their products and provide services. For them as for us, transformation is the only way forward.” Agencies’ resolve to pivot (sorry) shift from the “agency business” to the “transformation business” seems a prescription borrowed from Theodore Levitt’s seminal 1960 Harvard Business Review article, “Marketing Myopia.” In that article, the Harvard professor offered a lesson from freight and passenger railroads, which he said had gone into decline “because they assumed themselves to be in the railroad business rather than in the transportation business,” leaving others—“cars, trucks, airplanes, and even telephones”—to fill the void. “Transformation” is standard-issue consultancy-speak, so it’s not surprising to see legacy agency companies latch on to it as they strive to defend their relevance and make a claim for consultancies’ lucrative c-suite contracts. Accenture Interactive, the titan of marketing consultancies, trumpets its transformational acumen. In its entry for Ad Age Agency Report 2022, Accenture Interactive said: “As the world seeks to build back better, the demand for experience-led transformation continues to accelerate and stays front-of-mind for CEOs as businesses address the need for B2B transformations using B2C experiences.” (B as in business, C as in consumer, 2B as in Hamlet. Or not 2B.) Are you transfixed by transformation? Then take Ad Age’s transformational quiz to match a company—agency firms and marketers—with its statement. Let’s start with agency companies. We'll show you six quotes. Click on the blue box of the company that you think made the statement. We’ll give you your final score after you complete the quiz. 1. “We are successfully helping to move the business transformation journeys of our clients forward by delivering addressable and accountable marketing programs that are increasingly integrated with our world-class creative storytelling capabilities.” Interpublic Omnicom Publicis WPP Interpublic CEO Philippe Krakowsky, from earnings call (February 2022). 2. “Our focus is on continuing to increase our impact for clients, using our creativity and technology to support their transformation journeys.” Dentsu Interpublic Publicis WPP WPP, from annual report (March 2022). 3. “We’ve disrupted the industry—creating a new agency model focused on transforming customer, employee, patient and citizen experiences.” Accenture Interactive IBM iX Publicis Stagwell Accenture Interactive, from entry for Agency Report 2022. 4. “Positioned at every step of the value chain, from consulting to execution, combining marketing transformation and digital business transformation. … A privileged partner in its clients’ transformation to enhance personalization at scale.” Accenture Interactive IBM iX Publicis Stagwell Publicis Groupe, from press release. 5. “We help clients transform their experiences through the intersection of brand and digital strategy, human-centered design and exponential technologies like AI.” Accenture Interactive IBM iX Publicis WPP IBM iX, from entry for Agency Report 2022. 6. “Our aim is to reach 50% of our revenue from Customer Transformation & Technology over time. This reflects our vision of where the future growth in the industry lies: data, technology integrated with creativity and innovation to deliver top line growth for our clients.” Accenture Interactive Dentsu Interpublic Omnicom Dentsu Group President-CEO Hiroshi Igarashi, from earnings release. Expand your legacy with a transformation partner Bonus round. We’ll show you four marketers who talk up their own transformations. Match the quote with the marketer. 7. “Our legacy business powers our transformation, and our transformation enhances and expands our legacy.” Anheuser-Busch InBev Coca-Cola Co. Hasbro Paramount Global Paramount Global's Shari Ellen Redstone, non-executive chairman, at investor event where the company revealed future plans for the Transformers franchise and proclaimed its own transformational powers. 8. “Our goal with this review was to choose a Transformation Partner that can help us to accelerate our journey and deliver strong business growth.” Anheuser-Busch InBev Coca-Cola Co. Hasbro Paramount Global Anheuser-Busch InBev’s Luiz Barros, global VP, data and media, after the marketer consolidated its global media account at Publicis and Dentsu earlier this year. 9. “The breadth and depth of the partnership is unprecedented for [the company] and is expected to be a catalyst in the transformation of marketing effectiveness and efficiency.” Anheuser-Busch InBev Coca-Cola Co. Hasbro Paramount Global Coca-Cola Co.'s November announcement that it had hired WPP as “Global Marketing Network Partner” following a closely watched review. 10. “As the global consumer landscape, shopping behaviors and the retail and entertainment environments continue to evolve, the company continues to transform and reimagine its business strategy.” Anheuser-Busch InBev Coca-Cola Co. Hasbro Paramount Global Hasbro, the toy home of Transformers, from regulatory filing. See Ad Age Datacenter Agency Report 2022 Stories, rankings, stats Click here Subscribe to Ad Age’s Datacenter for ongoing data and insights on all of the most-advertised brands.

Think you know agency-speak? Take our transformational quiz

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