4 Tips for Creating an Open Agency Business Model

by: Antony Hampel

The continued evolution of online media is an ever complex and intricate world. While there is so much that social media and contemporary sharing platforms allow an entertainment agency to do, these tools have also made success harder.

With an abundance of media, there is an abundance of talent. These days, anybody with a computer and an internet connection can potentially make a name for themselves in the entertainment industry. Agency representation is no longer essential.

So, it now has to be desirable. The role of an entertainment agency needs to be one of mentor and guide. It needs to offer an understanding of and an ability to navigate the online world that cannot be found anywhere else. The time has come for the open agency business model to take over, because it allows companies to stay in sync with clients in a way that is simply not possible with a closed system.

Establish a Creative Culture

If you want to be an agile and flexible entertainment agency, with the power to adapt to industry developments, take a lead from startups. Move away from traditional ideas like closed meetings and formal hierarchies. Get everybody involved and start brainstorming from the same table. Encourage all employees to be thinkers and creators.

Seek Inspiration Far and Wide

While online trends like crowdsourcing can be scary for businesses – the internet moves so fast that it is hard to trust them – they simply represent a new way to source ideas. Don’t shy away from the most fertile platforms on the web, because even if they do turn out to be fleeting, they still offer the most accurate snapshot of what clients, talent, and sponsors care about.

Move with Speed and Confidence

The success of the open agency model, especially for entertainment companies, is based on the ability to move quickly. The influence of online media is so powerful that a lucrative name can become a worthless one overnight. This means that an entertainment agency needs to be ruthlessly nimble. If you cannot move on from failures and make vital decisions quickly, you will get left behind by the industry.

Make Employees Count

Help your open agency model to prosper by treating employees as essential cogs in the machinery that is your daily operation. Cultivate a bottom up approach, rather than a top down one, so that workers are not there just to fill space. You should have a lot of creators and leaders at the top and a lot of people who can put those ideas into action at the bottom. Try to keep the amount of workers in the middle to a minimum.

by: Antony Hampel