As industries change — and which industry isn’t undergoing massive transformational change right now? — so must their industry associations.
Look no further than MMA, which started out as the Mobile Marketing Association during the decade that was “the year of mobile!” – then subtly became the “modern marketing association” – and is now simply MMA, dedicated to unlocking the power of AI for marketers.
Well, if you haven’t noticed, the agency world is in the midst of tectonic change the likes of which it’s never experienced before. Holding companies are now fewer and flaunt their massive scale, while independents try to compete using bristling tech and antelope-like agility. And AI disrupts everything from entry-level staffing to synthetic audiences.
Enter Justin Thomas-Copeland, who took over as CEO of the agency world’s industry association, the 4As (which used to stand for the American Association of Advertising Agencies, then crunched it to 4A’s, a possessive that never should have been, and is now back to 4As.) Thomas-Copeland is on a mission to update what the 4As does for its membership.
“More than an inflection point, I think it’s almost like a mini rebirth of our industry,” said Thomas-Copeland, who was North American president/CEO of DDB, but has held executive roles at Rapp, Wunderman, Omnicom Precision Marketing Group and Novartis.
