Japanese cooking knives are very good. Most things in Japan are, but particularly the knives. This is partly because, for about 1000 years there were generations of blacksmiths who trained to service Samurai. But Samurai were abolished in 1870. I often think about blacksmiths in 1871 who were promised an honourable craft, looking around and thinking… What now?

The phrase "this industry isn't what it used to be" has stained the walls of ad agencies as much as cigarette smoke from the 90s. And in some ways it's true. But there's also never been more possibilities: more formats, more channels, more ways to make something. And yet it sometimes feels like harder and harder work to make increasingly average work. 

More media, more problems…

The tension isn't a lack of creativity, quite the opposite. The industry has never been more varied. The challenge is that when work can be anything, it becomes harder to commit to one thing. The media formats we have now fragment ideas into deliverables. Budgets stretch thinner across more outputs, every new opportunity opens more questions that need answering. So somewhere in that expansion, quality gets diluted.

Everyone is defending their camp at the minute but the real friction right now isn't about big versus small agencies. It's about stamina. It's about whether we can back an idea long enough to let it become something meaningful and engaging instead of familiar and forgettable.

Clients definitely feel this too. It's fair to say a lot of the actual risk sits solely with them - after all, agencies come and go but they're left in the HQ. Looking after a brand today means navigating a much more tricky landscape. There's more choice in agency partners, media channels and campaign strategies. If you've got comments turned on, you're inviting vocal scrutiny and public opinion. 

Coupled with more pressure from a board or stakeholders and dwindling marketing budgets, that boils down to much less margin for error. So I totally empathise with that caution and safer decision making. The instinct to play it safe is completely rational, even if it rarely produces the work anyone remembers.

Less layers is good for work

When I moved away from traditional network structures, what I found changed wasn't just size but the proximity to the work, too. Less layers between thinking and doing and less time spent in the politics of the agency.

In larger structures, momentum easily gets lost in complexity. The higher up the agency ladder the more removed you become from the actual work. Decision-making slows down and ideas are adapted to fit departments rather than built to travel across them. Integration becomes a rollout exercise rather than a starting principle.

The most effective teams I've worked with, agency and client side, share a different way of working. Small in ego, clear in responsibility, decisive in action. Collaboration doesn't mean appeasing everyone, but it does mean working with respect - appreciating people's strengths, roles and disciplines.

The industry loves the word ‘integrated.’ But integration isn't about matching assets across channels. It's about originating from one sharp idea and carrying it through brand, advertising and digital without losing its edge.

That's harder to do in structures built around departments. When an idea has to pass through enough hands, it stops travelling and starts shape-shifting, adapted to fit processes rather than built to cut through.

The other fact is that it's totally removed from how audiences consume those ideas. Everyone experiences brands holistically. If we operate purely in silos and specialisms, the client is left to join up the dots and hope for the best.

On the contrary, the agile model isn't just cheaper or faster. It's structurally closer to how good ideas actually work. Less distance between the people who shape an idea and the people who execute it. That proximity is better for the work but it's also just better for the people involved.

Yes budgets are tighter everywhere, meaning timelines are compressed. The temptation is to spread resources across more touchpoints and call it integration. But activity isn't cohesion. More formats, channels and outputs - none of that matters if there's no single idea strong enough to hold it together.

Get comfortable with commitment

We're seeing an influx of indie agencies popping up, most with a similar origin story: “we want to get back to doing what got us into this business”. Looking forward, the agencies and brands that will emerge the strongest aren't necessarily the biggest or the smallest. They're the ones who can commit to one idea and see it through. Who can challenge a brief without ego, stay out of politics and stay close to the work. That's what clients actually want - less time persuading the machine, more time solving the problem.

Like the knives in Japan, people will always find a way to use their skills and make good stuff. The future doesn't belong to big or small, network or indie, AI or human. It belongs to whoever just loves making the work.