The Agency in Cyberspace: A Content Analysis of Ad Agency Homepages

Abstract

The Internet is changing the nature of marketing communications. Through the Internet, buyers have "real-time" access to businesses across the world. Interestingly, in spite of a number of studies that investigate the Internet's impact on advertising messages, to date, no one has examined the Internet's impact on the advertising agency. In this study, we begin to fill this “gap” in the literature. We conducted a content analysis of advertising agency homepage to determine how agencies use the web to communicate with current and potential customers. Specifically, we examine two broad questions: 1) what percentage of leading U.S. advertising agencies have a web presence?, and 2) for what purposes do ad agencies use their homepages? To answer the second question, we investigate three specific aspects of the homepage: a) communication strategy, b) interactivity, and c) the degree to which the homepage lists firm credentials.

Keywords: ad agency, interactive, corporate advertising