Over the past four decades, at various times, agencies that represented the leading edge of the European ad scene have stumbled into cul-de-sacs of borrowed approaches. Fortunately, on each occasion, a new generation of leaders has stepped up to take their places.


We are in the midst of yet another such a changing of the guard. A group of rebel agencies -- a fourth wave -- is reinvigorating advertising through its brash, rough-and-ready attitude and an eagerness to exploit new, sometimes untried, and often in-your-face media solutions.

To understand where we are now, it helps to know where we came from. During the post-war industrial boom, many large U.S. consumer products manufacturers began expanding into Europe. For the sake of convenience, they encouraged their incumbent domestic agencies to do the same.

Soon, U.S. shops with foreign-sounding appellations were buying agencies and tacking up nameplates in London and other large population centres across Europe. This marked the first wave of major agency change in the European ad scene.

As was to be expected, these incipient global networks brought with them that brash, bullish Yankee approach to business that always seems to rankle people in this part of the world. Equally predictably, it is easy to say with hindsight, this injection of new ideas and competitiveness into the market soon produced a second wave of change.

TBWA in Paris, and Saatchi & Saatchi of London -- both formed in 1970s -- comprised the vanguard of the European response to the American agency invasion. Despite their creative origins, both quickly evolved into network plays designed to beat the Americans at their own game.

Fourth wave agencies are embracing the aggressive use of viral, ambush and guerilla marketing tactics.

The third wave emerged in London in the 1980s as a reaction to the growing dominance of the network agencies -- and the safe, boring advertising they were often accused of producing. The movement included shops such as BBH, launched by three former TBWA employees, and Legas Delaney, both of which were founded in 1982.

HHCL came along toward the end of the third wave in 1987. Even Wieden and Kennedy set up a garrison in Europe at the very tail end of this period -- in Amsterdam no less. W&K by-passed the traditional London office to service Nike, which had placed its own European HQ in Holland. These and other agencies banged the drum of creativity and ignited an international revival of faith in the power of great advertising ideas. The third-wave agencies worshipped at the altar of traditional advertising creative. They boldly claimed they could make better television and print ads -- and they did.

Which brings us to the present. The current crop of agency pirates and revolutionaries is, like those that preceded it, intent upon smashing the existing agency order. But unlike their predecessors, these agencies in London, Amsterdam, Berlin, Stockholm and Paris do not claim to have a ready-made solution to offer in its place. Rather, their vision is to open their eyes to new possibilities.

Fourth-wave agencies include shops such as Acne of Stockholm, whose netbabyworld.com offers mix of gaming, marketing, and new tech like mobile phones as the new media. In Amsterdam, there's 180 (in association with TBWA), Kessels Kramer, as well as (ahem) StrawberryFrog and BlueberryFrog. In London, it's Karmarama, Awkright, Anticorp and Mother. In Berlin there is Amerq Stolle and in Paris, Le Singe -- a French startup backed by EuroRSCG. Austria has Konzett. All of these agencies are great creative in traditional media, but they see this as the price of entry in today's advertising culture. They are embracing a much broader vision of inventiveness that includes the aggressive use of viral, ambush and guerilla marketing tactics.

This is advertising that's jagged around the edges, that surprises, that doesn't condescend.

Fourth-wave agencies possess a heightened sense of faith that it will work in other arenas as well. When localizing Nike's Freestyle ad for the French market, Le Singe made its goal the creation of maximum word-of-mouth buzz. So, after re-editing the spot with music and footage relevant to Parisian hoopsters, Le Singe distributed it for home use on a V-light tape designed to play just three times.

In this can be seen the attitude of impertinence that distinguishes these young shops. Historically, advertising has tended to coddle and pamper consumers. At their very best, the fourth-wave shops produce work that exhibits a brazen ****you quality. Why does the Freestyle tape play only three times? Because that's the way it is. Next question.

This is advertising that's jagged around the edges, that surprises, that doesn't condescend. But consumers appreciate the sense that a sentient mind -- and not some corporate drone -- is behind it.

Fourth wave agencies are the generation of agencies weened on the mother's milk of technology, the Internet, email and computers. They weild power of mobility and information -- which, ironically, was the edge given to the big, corporate agencies once upon a time. They are also the agencies that make greatest use of a free flow of the world's top talent, who today no longer wish to be tied down to any one shop.

And in the end, the fourth wave agencies -- more than any other wave of agencies in the past -- have the highest liklihood of challenging the huge corporate networks for some of their largest clients. In fact, it's already happening..