I think the sudden growth in outsourcing for basic hands-on SEO work has probably been a contributing factor as well. Both because it has allowed some companies to outsource much of the ‘grunt work’, and because it has simultaneously forced higher cost agencies to distance themselves and ‘up-quality’ such cheap competition.

Was my recent interview of any inspiration at all?

Things sure are a-changing out there, eh? The influence of Madison Avenue on the search industry will be interesting to gauge. Most likely, a lot of reputable search companies will be gobbled up by traditional marketers.

But to see how far Madison Avenue has to go, all you have to do is do a Google search for NeoSearch@Ogilvy on Google. NeoSearch @Ogilvy is Ogilvy’s new search marketing arm – but they aren’t even listed in Google! Funny, funny stuff.