“Procter & Gamble’s partnership with Accenture offers a contrast with Coca-Cola’s 1991 experiment of hiring Creative Artists Agency to work with McCann-Erickson to produce advertising. At the time, this was heralded as a revolution, but the talent-agency-as-ad-firm model never expanded beyond this one trial. Hollywood agents and producers do not necessarily have the same skills as ad agency creative directors (not that talent agencies can’t help with tasks such as product placement).

“The P&G/Accenture venture appears to have more staying power. The Coke/CAA experiment brought in new players to raise a company’s ‘hip’ quotient. P&G, on the other hand, recognizes that Web marketing is fundamentally different from mass marketing. Both types of marketing require strong creative work and good tactical skills (e.g., ad placement), but Web marketing requires a fantastically greater level of data analysis and information management. This where is the technical services of an Accenture come in: industry leaders are banding together to enhance marketing capabilities in completely new areas.”