Virtual Agency as a New Force in the Promotions Industry, The

Abstract

The virtual agency (VA) is a new form of advertising/promotions organization. By using technology to create ad hoc teams of promotions professionals, the virtual agency is changing the nature of the advertising business. In the following paragraphs, we (a) distinguish the virtual agency from traditional agencies and (b) explain why this is an important development for e-commerce and the advertising/promotion field. Virtual agencies use the Internet as a means to redistribute the tasks traditionally performed at a single promotions firm. The completed work that the agencies perform for their clients is often similar to the work produced by traditional agencies. Virtual agencies, however, typically perform such work for a fraction of the traditional full-service agency’s price These new organizations are revolutionizing the promotions industry by the manner in which they distribute the tasks associated with creating a promotions campaign. To date, the agencies have not used the Internet to produce wholly new types of promotions. The virtual agencies instead use the Internet for simple communication; the Internet allows VAs to collaborate in a manner that was much more difficult prior to the widespread adoption of the Web.