Strategic responses to market globalisation among advertising agencies

Abstract

The advertising industry is undergoing major changes as markets and clients become more global. Using the integration-responsiveness framework and the transnational framework, it is apparent that advertising agencies have a high need to be simultaneously integrated and responsive. This paper reports on a series of depth interviews with international agency leaders intended to gain an assessment of both the extent to which their firms are responding to these important but conflicting needs and the appropriateness of the framework for understanding the strategic options available for ad agency management. The findings indicate that the agencies have tried to modify their strategies to accommodate both kinds of pressures. However, their success in this regard is questioned and other broader strategic concerns are considered.