The current 'one size fits all' commodity model is no longer fit for purpose. The future will need to be more diverse, with individual agency models better adapted to the individual needs of different advertisers.

Over a month, a quarter, or a year, the sales of any brand are determined by the number of people who buy it, how often they do so and which other brands they buy.

Like any emerging technology, the web has continually reinvented itself, first as sites that simply reproduced printed matter, later as the more interactive environment of Web 2.0.

True, there are green shoots. US job losses are slowing. Western countries are coming out of recession, and BRIC growth is recovering sharply. UK manufacturing is rising. Consumers and businesses worldwide are slowly gaining in confidence.

Internet overtakes television to become biggest advertising sector in the UK – IAB, October 2009

Ferocious competition is the norm in most of the networked economy, but a single supplier has dominated the markets for desktop software, internet search and online auctions almost from the outset.

In this article – based on the Demos Atlas of Ideas project – Leadbeater and Wilsdon argue that the West is no longer the dominant source of innovation, given the speed and scale of activity in China, India and Korea.

Is the growing dominance of an online business culture an opportunity or a threat for the marketing and PR industries?

Branding can help an organisation own an innovation, create and dominate a new subcategory and enhance the perceived effectiveness of the organisation.

This article is reprinted from the latest WPP Annual Report and Accounts, with kind permission. It expands on a theme first explored in Market Leader, Autumn 2007.