A brief (sort of) history of agencies | Advertising Age

Ad Age just produced its 75th annual Agency Report, so we dug through the archives to see how the agency business has (and has not) changed.

The result is an agency timeline capturing highlights from 1945, when we published the first Agency Report, to 2019.

The timeline shows the rocket growth of TV from 1948, when just 0.4 percent of U.S. households had a set, to 1954, when TVs were in 55 percent of U.S. homes and TV ad revenue moved ahead of magazines and radio.

We track the rise of digital from 1987, when pioneering interactive agency Modem Media opened up shop, to 2017, when digital work for the first time accounted for more than half of revenue for U.S. agencies.

We also explore the deals and dealmakers, from Marion Harper Jr.’s creation of Interpublic in 1960 to Martin Sorrell’s takeover of Ogilvy in 1989. David Ogilvy called WPP’s Sorrell an "odious little shit," but the two eventually reached detente.

Check out the agency timeline at AdAge.com/agencyreport75th.

[from http://bit.ly/2VwvxLm]