The ad agency world is buzzing about Nike's decision to move its running shoe business out of Wieden + Kennedy, which has enjoyed a 25-year long relationship with Nike. It's not so much about the account loss, but why. 
A story in Monday's Wall Street Journal says Nike has not been satisfied with Wieden's work with digital media, which the company needs to reach and engage the younger consumer that makes up the majority of the athletic shoe market.
The giant ad agencies have been running around buying up digital marketing companies, in hopes of jump-starting their digital capabilities. On the heels of the Nike/Wieden + Kennedy shock wave, expect to see even more scrambling on and off Madison Avenue to pick up instant digital expertise. The agency honchos don't want to lose business to those young upstarts, so they'll throw wads of cash (or stock) in their faces to own them instead.
The real challenge will be getting the ad giants and their new digital acquisitions to truly integrate the new way of doing business into the traditional advertising model. And that may be a bigger challenge than many think. Bob Garfield, writing in Advertising Age, says,
"In terms of culture, organization, expertise and compensation structure, a global ad agency can no more easily transition from a gross-ratings-points mentality to a world of aggregation, information, optimization and customer-relationship management than Young & Rubicam can transition from English to French. It's two entirely different grammars and vocabularies. Not to mention revenue models."
Where, in the past, network television was king and agencies' major attention was drawn to its big revenue potential and high visibility, agencies are now trying to find ways to make money through advertising in digital media and...oh yes, serve the client's marketing needs.
A similar movement is starting in the public relations world also, although not as dramatic and as visible. But like in the ad agency arena, how many PR agencies, large or small, are truly familiar with utilizing digital media/social media to communicate clients' messages? Some are starting to talk the talk -- throw messages out there with a clip on YouTube, put up a blog, mass email press releases to bloggers.
But is it being done with any strategic basis? The clients want to appear hip by going digital, so give them what they want, whether it makes good marketing sense or not.
Marketing is on the frontier of the digital media landscape. We're still experimenting and learning how best to utilize it.
It's up to us, as we experiment and learn, to keep in mind that what we're doing on our clients' behalf is about informing, motivating and serving customers on an ongoing basis. If we forget that as we go chasing exciting new technologies, then we've led our clients astray.
For another take on the corporate digital grab and customers falling by the wayside, see Matt Dickman's Techno//Marketer.