Does The Talent Agency Model Hold The Key To Brand Advertising's Future?

by Joe Marchese, Tuesday, Jun 26, 2007 1:01 PM ET
Joe Marchese is President of socialvibe.

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/index.cfm?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=62949.

Recently MediaPost covered NBC's leadership in efforts to integrate brands at the creative point in content production. This is something I think NBC was starting to hit its stride on even earlier (more about product placement and NBC here.) All of this leads to some very interesting points. If the goal for brands is to be integrated with or sponsor content even before production, it sounds like what brands need is an agent.

Certainly agencies have been leaders in building brands for some time (see Coke and CAA). But this new emphasis on brand integration and content sponsorship renews the need for matchmaking of brands and talent much earlier in the creative process. Brands want to be funny, or dramatic, or cool, and writers want to write funny, or dramatic, or cool -- along with actors and producers who also want to be funny, dramatic, or cool. The talent agency's potential ability to see opportunities to form these symbiotic relationships between brands (and a brand's money) and talent (and talent's need for a brand's money) is unparalleled. It's the ability to make these matches early enough in the creative process to allow for the vetting of potential brand integration strategies (i.e., anything but pop-ups) that gives the talent agency a major advantage.

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Overall, I believe that with the right infusion of business process technologies and model adaptation, talent agencies are ideally positioned to capitalize on the shift to new media monetization methods. Who better to target cool than the people who represent those creating cool? What are your thoughts?