Post-Agency Era, Now Powered by Google

The post-agency era is upon us. I used to engage an agent for my auto insurance. No more, thanks to Progressive . Long gone are the days of booking a trip with a travel agent. Oh, you adorable travel gnome , look what you have done. Public relations agents were once required to reach the media. Now, we are the iReporters and the executive producers, hosts and broadcasters – not to mention every “comment” box now makes each and everyone of us an Op-Ed contributor. Companies are producing branded content instead of commercials. Surely the next “agency” to go – and the one holding on tightest – is the ad agency. Really, in an disintermediated market, why do we need go-betweens at all?

It would seem that the recent launch of Google’s Ad Planner is another step in this direction. A challenge to the advertising world, yet one positioned to be in the service of advertising agencies. Something is going on.

In fact, this is a wholesale, total reversal of the advertising agency. Ad Planner doesn’t challenge the agency model; it obliterates it. Why? Because Ad Planner is an advertising brokerage tool.

The business fundamentals have been reversed. Ad Planner is a utility to monetize websites by automating the ad placement process onto Google network and non-network sites. The service is valuable, the data is rich; efficiency and trackability are both delivered in compelling form.

The New York Times and others are reporting that the primary challenge of the service is to Nielsen and comScore, the two biggest players in Web traffic and user data. It is convenient to position these as the folks on the sharp end of this very powerful spear. In the end, though, the business play is that of brokerage (with lots of data flowing around it), described in Google’s own language, as created to “help media planners…connect advertisers and publishers.” In truth, it connects publishers to advertisers, a subtle and key difference.

Not convinced this is a post-agency play? The Ad Planner service is free. Care to guess how the money flows? There is a traditionl media version in test as well.

Does this put Google in conflict with its “Don’t be evil” mantra? Not a bit. The advertising industry has held on to the agency model for far too long. It was slow to adapt to a changing media environment. And, it continued to value creative sizzle over consultative substance. The industry left itself open to be leap-frogged in this way. I say, "hooray for Google." They have, again, created a new category…a new model of connection…a new basis for monetizing media.

Welcome to the post-agency era. Welcome to the brokerage age.

Oh, and talent agents: you are officially warned.