The End of Advertising As We Know It, Says IBM

According to IBM the next five years will hold as much change for the advertising industry as the previous fifty, because it's the end of advertising as we know it. Thanks IBM, but we sort of figured that out already... If you are still gainfully employed in the advertising, marketing, or public relations industries after three years of layoffs and lost clients you know how much the game has shifted. Chances are your job today looks nothing like it did three years ago; from social technologies to augmented reality it's a brave new world.

There aren't any surprises here: including the fact that the whole report is a sales tool for various IBM business consulting units. Perhaps the most interesting fact of all is that, for whatever reason, IBM has decided that agencies will make up a major consulting vertical for 2010. Is IBM aware that most agencies are scraping for pennies and probably aren't prepared to drop $300k+ on a consulting gig?

Nick Kinports (follow him on Twitter @ADMAVEN) has worked in the interactive technology world for over 9 years, and helps the Fortune 100 identify unmet consumer needs, create ideas to fill those needs, and bring them into market. He currently works at Maddock Douglas.