Hasta La Creative!

Ad Age is looking at agency business growth from an employment perspective. Meanwhile, Adweek is reporting that Chief Marketing Officers have a bug up their asses.

Get ready to defend. In the coming year, nearly half of marketers plan to fire at least one of their agencies and change direction, according to the second annual forecast to be released today by the CMO Council.

The survey of 825 chief marketing officers also indicates a trend away from traditional advertising and public relations and toward “customer-facing” and lead-generation programs such as event marketing and e-mail.

Last year, 54 percent of respondents predicted an agency change, and almost 60 percent of CMOs were true to their promise.

Agencies are criticized by CMOs for “lack of innovation, no value-added thinking and poor creative.”