COMMENT: Look to media firms to breathe new life into full service concept

But this time the global time scale will be much shorter.

The explosion in new channels of communication over the last five years and the consequent atomising of media audiences, presents both a problem and an opportunity to advertisers - the problem of cost effectively reaching mass audiences and the opportunity to reach them with more precision than ever before.

Compared to five years ago, consumers are much more in control of the advertiser/consumer relationship because of either being able to choose from myriad channels of information and entertainment, or screening out most of the thousands of messages to which they are exposed daily from other sources - outdoor, the internet, POS, ambient media, etc. This means that the "how

and the "when

- understanding how to intercept people and when to connect with them - has become as important as the "what

- message content.

Advertising agencies have generally been inert in responding to these changes, and most are still not much more than specialists in creating ads for conventional media; the large agency groups have responded by either setting up or acquiring companies specialising in what are loosely referred to as "below-the-line

communications, but few have managed to forge them into the focused, integrated communications service demanded by today's environment.

In the UK, and elsewhere in Europe, this challenge is being met by media agencies to which many advertisers are turning to for communication channel planning rather than just media strategy; moreover, they are turning to their media agencies before they go to their ad agencies for creative strategy and execution. Thus, media agencies are gradually transforming themselves into communications agencies with responsibility for brand communications strategy - a position previously held by ad agencies as "brand custodians". In effect, media agencies are filling a vacuum left by the mainstream ad agencies. The media revolution, then, has put media agencies in the best position to deliver integrated communications strategies and many of the larger ones are acquiring strategic planners with the expertise to formulate integrated campaigns across channels as diverse as direct marketing, sales promotion, sponsorship, online and ambient media - in addition to their conventional media skills.

Moreover, these agencies have set up in-house business units specialising in non-traditional communications, delivering everything short of creative execution. How long will it be before they acquire creative services and there is a return to the full service agency concept, but this time one that is media-led?