FITC (once called Flash in the Can) is painting a bleak future for agencies that don’t stay up-to-date with online trends in a new online video, The Last Advertising Agency On Earth.
The organization, which holds conferences worldwide on online technology, tapped Toronto agency Saatchi & Saatchi to create a campaign that would make FITC events appeal to agency executives, who traditionally have not shown up in great numbers.
Only 4% of their conference attendees last year were from agencies, said Brett Channer, chairman and executive creative director at Saatchi. Those few agency staffers who do attend are “all people chipping away at the multinational [agencies], the boutique places, the digital companies that actually produce work.”
The film opens showing the remnants of a fictitious agency office, now deserted and preserved as a museum.
“They were carrying on as they always had, ignorant of the great change going on all around them that would soon destroy them,” says a narrator.
That change, of course, was the consumer-empowering digital revolution brought on by social media.
The video closes with the line “You really, really, really should go,” and a throw to FITC.ca.
Saatchi filmed the spot in Los Angeles, piggybacking production with another television ad already being filmed.
The agency has no formal contract with FITC, but produced the video in a contra arrangement to earn its staff admission to FITC events.
Last Advertising Agency went live on March 19 on approximately 20 industry-targeted blogs, as well as on FITC.ca. A Google search of the title shows it has spread well beyond that initial seeding.
“It seems to be resonating,” Channer said.
