The Effect of the World Wide Web on Agency–Advertiser Relationships: Towards A Strategic Framework

Abstract

Buffeted by the fragmentation of media and markets, the World Wide Web has started transforming the competitive landscape in the advertising industry. Increasingly, advertising agencies are forced to compete with in‐house CIS/MIS departments, public relations agencies and computer graphic studios and boutiques for Web‐related accounts. Vis–à–vis the immediacy of the challenge, agencies are forced to either broaden their business horizon to include all aspects of communications or to stay focused on their core business‐making advertisements for traditional media. This article examines the possible effects of the World Wide Web on the blurring of boundaries in advertiser‐agency performed promotional activities, analyses the similarities in the strategies adopted in the transition from radio to television, and appraises the options which agencies face in adopting the Web.