Ryan Moede

There are lots of tough questions companies must confront in dealing with a consumer who's more engaged, more informed and more concerned with social issues than ever before. Among those questions: What does the company stand for? What does it believe? How does it make its products and treat its employees? Is it being straight with us in its ads? All of these points are part of the larger conversation people are now having about brands.

One of the new roles for ad agencies may be to help clients figure out how to have these expanded, deeper conversations with the public and come out looking good. It's harder and more complicated than just doing one-way messaging in the form of clever 30-second commercials. Helping client companies transition into this new era of accountability and responsibility may require that the agency be willing to step up and ask a client some of those tough questions cited above -- and then help that client figure out how best to address these issues in a way that doesn't come off as empty spin.

This might involve making ads, sure, but it could also involve launching community initiatives, revising corporate policies, improving product design -- it could involve just about everything the company does, as well as what it says. Is all this non-advertising stuff any of the ad agency's business? It ought to be. In the newly transparent business environment, everything a company does ends up communicating some kind of message to the world. Which makes it all relevant to the relationship between a company and its communication partner.

To the extent agencies can succeed in taking on this larger role of helping clients broaden and deepen the conversation with the public, the agencies will of course be helping themselves, too. Because ad agencies, as we all know, are grappling with their own midlife crisis -- which began a few years ago, when they noticed that their favorite tool (the TV commercial) was suddenly showing signs of aging and diminished potency. On top of that, the business is losing some of its appeal to bright young people who, these days, are showing more interest in solving problems and creating progress than in just selling stuff.