[Book PDF] Madison Valley: How Madison Avenue can be more like Silicon Valley

Title: Madison Valley: Building Digital Products. Getting the most out of talent. And how Madison Avenue can be more like Silicon Valley

Author: Leif Abraham

Abstract: Nowadays, a relationship to a company is most often built through product experience, not just advertising. 
But brand thinkers are still often being left out of the process of product innovation until the new product needs to be launched. And on agency side, we still have massive organizations working for just a tiny piece of the brand, the advertising. When you look at these organizations, you will realize that they have much of the same creative talent you will find in a startup incubator in Silicon Valley, and yet these environments are primarily used to create things like funny videos, rather than successful companies. 
This is not the talent’s fault. It’s the fault of an agency model that is not set up to build or maintain more than just content. 
Agency folks know that and feel how their influence is slipping away, so in order to conquer more than just advertising, agencies are creating “Labs” and internal incubator to show they got it. But let’s be honest, most of these are bullsh** PR tactics that are not taken seriously inside the company. These “Labs” are still living in the same old structures of the ad agency and the people involved still have to do their advertising client work first, before they’re allowed to put their “twenty percent” into the lab. 
This book provides an analysis of how product innovation is treated in agencies today. It shows how the model can be changed to cultivate an environment and business model that creates successful, new products, as well as deeper agency-client relationships. It also provides a blueprint for motivating and empowering team structures that will help to get the most out of employees and their talents. And it will conclude with actionable tips for brand managers and agency execs to start right now.

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