Net-X Melbourne to close

Marketing Magazine has just broken a story on Net-X's Melbourne office being closed. The company, whose headquarters are in Sydney, was bought last year by CHE (part of BBDO) was acquired as part of a move by Clemenger in Sydney to quickly add a digital offering to their services. Unfortunately for the Melbourne office, Clemenger here already had a digital arm, Blue, and thus Net-X Melbourne was left to languish with no clear directive.

It looks to be another example of a worrying condition now known globally as IGW, or Integration Gone Wrong. The formula's pretty simple:

1. Large agency realises it needs digital on its rate card.


2. Large agency is confounded by the amazing culture at independent digital agency - all these people appear to care about what they do, and even enjoy their work. Strange.


3. Large agency buys independent digital agency and promises not to change the culture.


4. Large agency then imposes elephantine corporate structure and converts full service digital agency into soul-crushing banner ad sweat shop.


5. The culture that made the independent digital agency so attractive is smothered like a cashed-up pensioner with a pillow, talent at the agency leave, and the agency eventually dies.

This process seems to be the model for integration adopted by many large agencies, but clearly it's poisonous.

In other words...


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Image courtesy of We The People, with thanks to compfight.