That’s easy. Any agency that is successful, produces admired work and is run by the people who own it. Here’s why:
That prolific old fart, George Parker, got it exactly right when he started calling big, publicly-held shops “Big Dumb Agencies” (BDA’s). They have but one aim in life – to produce value for their faceless shareholders. And it’s all David Ogilvy’s fault.
In 1966, Ogilvy & Mather was the first agency to go public. (D.O. bought the Chateau de Touffou shortly thereafter.) And guess who the biggest outside shareholder was? Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway. Anyway, O&M went public, D.O. got a 12th century chateau and the future course for advertising agency ownership was set.
(Sir Martin) Sorrell pissed-off the Saatchis, left and started WPP. Leverage buyout after leveraged buyout followed. Being public, O & M was easy meat for the “odious little shit.” Agency owner-operators (including me) continued to cash in their chips and the BDA’s got bigger (and dumber).
It all came to a head when I worked for a BBDO agency. I always thought Omnicom was a less dumb BDA because it allowed the owners of the agencies it bought to remain in control. (Clemengers is a good example.) And even the agencies they owned – like AMV – continued to flourish creatively because of the BBDO mantra: The Work, The Work, The Work.
Then I attended a very big BBDO staff meeting. Allen Rosenshine (left)
So thanks to David Ogilvy (OK, slight exaggeration here) the ad business is controlled by the big, dumb publicly-owned groups. But thank goodness there are still a few, brilliant, owner-operated shops for me to choose from (if I was 50 years younger). By the way, D.O. always regretted going public.