I have a friend and ex-colleague, in the advertising business, who’s very careful to use the title consultant. Communications consultant, yes, but even more importantly business consultant. This is a guy who’s been to business school, started a number of companies, who loves advertising, has co-written, produced and directed quite a few TV ads. Not too common. He doesn’t care much about departments. And he sure doesn’t give a crap about titles. But he does care about coming across as a consultant. A client or potential client will never leave a meeting thinking they just talked to their future advertising agency (which is a bit sad). They just met a business consultant who often use communications as a tool to drive business results. This works to his favor.
Here are three variables that’s been very top of mind with me lately. Both because of client specific work and for the fact that they’re floating around the blogosphere. I’ve also included a triangle for you who can’t visualize how the three are connected…

1 - Dan Landin on advertising spend and measuring.
2 - Us, in the future, perhaps. By Bud Caddell.
3 - McKinsey, who get away with being damn good in any imaginable area it seems.
So:
Are advertising agencies OK with, and will they be proud of, for example, analyzing a client’s online store, identifying that they can help the client go from 16 clicks to purchase, to 3, with 26% of traffic on the way to purchase presently dropping out after about 8 clicks? Are advertising agencies proud of a case like that? A case that helped a client earn (or rather keep) a couple of hundred thousand or millions of dollars a year, worth of revenue with a fairly “simple” move like that, that stand no chance winning a gold lion?* A business consultant would.
Thing is, it’s OK to be perfectly alright with “just” being about advertising tomorrow too. Advertising agencies can be advertising agencies because they’re needed. And it’s OK to be of the opinion that agencies should/will have to change. Because advertising agency can be a very troublesome name/definition. Either way; the triangle should involve business consultants. Because we’re not considered that.
* Yes we did. It was actually 16 clicks to 3 (and hopefully that’s very rare), the revenue part remains a secret.