Never before has the agency world required new blood as it does today. I’m not going to harp on about digital again……okay I am for a bit. It would seem that according to Precision Marketing Magazine (4th May 06) middle and top management just don’t get new media. This means that whilst the traditional ATL shops hold on the reigns and only allow in 4 – 5 grads a year DM, Digital, POS and Event Management agencies are taking in more new blood than ever before and they aren’t with years of experience. Instead, they are young, enthusiastic, keen to absorb and will go to extreme lengths to make their mark.

However, it is true to say that the large ATL agencies are making changes. Where the old skool way of grad recruitment still exists you’ll find many a eager graduate forcing their way in as Account Assistants and climbing the ropes this way. It’s also true to say that agencies did have a phobia of the untrained and inexperienced but what seems to be happening now is a shift to the much more clued up grad. This is more than likely to do with the realisation that a good school a good degree and a nice accent isn’t what agencies are looking for these days. It’s now time for the hungry to rule who spend their summers hunting around agencies for a week here a week there of experience and then hustle agencies to give them a break.

This looks to mark the future of advertising as the old boy networks disappear, that we see many more females taking up roles not just in account handling but more importantly in creative and pathetic bully manager mentality is ushered out the door.

Creatives are also changing. The suit jacket, t-shirt and jeans wearing creative who is in his mid 40s and refuses to talk to account execs are a dying breed. It’s about bloody time.

These insecure and wasteful creatures that stroll around with their egos 5 steps ahead of them are now having to justify their existence and the ad they did that won awards but no remembers it some 8 years ago won’t save them. Nor will their political ties to senior management.

Incoming the young creative teams who can talk digital, can talk SMS, can talk DM and then, if they think appropriate, TV, radio, press and print. Even better, these creatives don’t have the insecurity of their elders, their personalities are far more client facing, they make the whole process much easier by getting on with account handlers and roll their eyes at the term ’suit’. At last the agency’s core competitive skill are becoming a bunch of young, gifted fun loving professionals.

Yup, it’s a new dawn and a new day and about time