Grey Group's Nirvik Singh's vision for the agency of the future

Asked how creative and media agencies are coping in the digital era, Singh says he sees an evolving model. “The creative agencies are very strong on the execution side and the media agencies are strong on the digital delivery side. I see creative agencies trying to buy digital agencies and I see media agencies trying to acquire digital agencies – it boils down to the fact that I think the model has changed.”

He says that the digital medium requires real time solutions, which marketers will demand more and more.

“And I think when that happens, you can’t sit on one island by yourself. I think they will come together… to form a third new agency — what I would like to term the community agency — agencies that handle communities will be the agency of the future.”

Singh goes on to express his concerns about the talent situation, and how the current education system is failing employees of the future.

“The entire education system is geared to deliver for the industrial age, for jobs in the industrial era – but the world has moved on. In the digital era, you have to plan for jobs that don’t exist. We have consigned memory to USB or data warehouses yet expecting our children to learn for this new world that’s totally unstructured. I think someone needs to take a look at the entire education system,” he says.

“What you’re looking for is someone who’s a bit of any engineer and a bit of an artist but the current education system doesn’t provide for that. I think in five years time the big jobs will be community manager of a company or community manager of a brand.”

On the topic of digital, and whether it’s now redundant to be making the distinction between digital and traditional, Singh says that with something as pervasive as digital, there’s no need to say it any more. “It’s a cultural shift within your organisation – and if the medium for communication is digital then so be it. For the first time the consumers have the power – you need to put that at the heart of you operations.”

Within Grey, Singh says they are trying to do three things including trying to start things up on their own, finding people who understand the space. “We’ve done acquisitions to telescope time in some markets; and in some markets we’re going to experiment and see what we can do. People will sit at the centre of the agency, and that’s not just symbolic, it’s where the gravity of the agency will be.”