MDC’s ‘Million-Dollar Challenge’

MDC Partners is the large holding company that owns a large percentage of today’s prominent advertising agencies including Crispin Porter + Bogusky, VITRO, mono, Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal & Partners, and dozens of other agencies.  Today they are making waves in the agency world by offering up $1 million to fund a new start-up agency with a fresh business model, in exchange for 51% ownership of the new agency.

The most shocking—although not surprising—detail revealed in the article is that MDC spent $1 million dollars to revamp their corporate website.  Working in the advertising world for the last decade I clearly understand what all goes into the budgeting of these projects—thousands of hours of meeting, planning, debating, holding committees, politics, and then a small percentage on the actual execution of the idea.  How can you dispute that $1 million dollars isn’t an insanely bloated budget for a site built on existing platforms and technology (Twitter, Brightkite, Google Maps, YouTube)?  This is a prime example of the challenges that large agencies are facing to stay relevant in our fast-paced digital culture.

Personally I believe building a vibrant and successful agency simply takes hard work and raw talent and throwing $1 million at a startup would change the motivation to work hard from success to performing to the standards that rewarded them the $1 million. The results of both motivations might appear similar, but there is no doubt that the motivation will ultimately effect the agency culture.