Will the agency of the future be a newsroom?

There is much talk about the agency of the future, with competing visions, approaches to data, to clients, to sweets in the lobby. But could be agency of the future be more like a newsroom? Read on for the week in advertising and marketing, including Facebook's bumper quarter.

"You shouldn't begin a piece with a quote," said someone.

“When I think back to how we used to work, it all seems to be in dreary slo-mo. It would take months of self-indulgent chin-stroking before any work would finally appear. Then, after another ice age, we would find out if the work had actually had an impact on sales. By this time, most people had given up caring, or changed jobs, or died. Nowadays, we work more like a newsroom," says Danny Brooke-Taylor, one of the founders of Lucky Generals.

Is this the model for the creative agency of the future? Lucky Generals has gone from nowhere, founded in 2013, to significant scale and rolling creative mojo today. New-school responsiveness melded with old-school production and quality. Read also their case study of the "Youth Hostelling with Chris Eubank" ad they produced last year.

A big week for Facebook as it posted another explosive round of earnings, ad revenue up 59% to $6.8 billion in the three months to September 30.

Each Facebook user is now worth just below $16 to the social giant each quarter, up from around $2 in 2012. Facebook earned more than the entire US newspaper industry in the first nine months of this year.

Facebook moved its tanks onto the mobile lawn a few years back to keep up, and the latest numbers rom PwC and IAB US suggest this was sensible, as mobile ad spend increased 89% in the past year to $15.5bn in the US alone.

The social giant also blocked an app created by insurer Admiral, which profiled users based on their data to set insurance rates, not their actual driving ability. Some dubbed the Admiral app 'shambolic'. Meanwhile in the US, it paradoxically defends its 'ethnic affinity targeting'.

Meanwhile, WPP will spend $5bn with Google this year, up from $4bn in 2015, with the sinking pound giving the ad conglomerate an unexpected boost.

One of our best-loved brands, John Lewis, appointed its first female MD last week. Paula Nickolds started as a graduate trainee in 1994 and has risen steadily through the ranks.

John Lewis has won the Christmas ad wars for several years on the trot. But this year the first Christmas ad is for cat treats. But it's a goody, with felines completely ruining clinically-controlled-Christmas:

While Nickolds' rise has been a combination of talent and hard work, Dave Trott says that hard work will trump talent in the long run (but both seem to be ideal).

Dominic Mills mourns the death of the endline, while these are the 50 companies creatives want to work for. Is there a recipe for creativity anyway:

Are hybrid cars the next thing to be consigned to the scrapheap? This research suggests they will be overtaken by new electric vehicles with reliable batteries and range.

Amazon India is preparing battle with a handful of native competitors, with the American giant boasting 12 varieties of cow dung mailed to your home, how could it possibly fail? This piece explores the nature of startups and cultural significance.

As the developing world catches-up (or even overtakes) the developed world, one victim is the environment. Watch the trailer for Leo’s ‘Before the flood’ doc:

And the full film.

In the UK, Press regulation rolls on, with Roy Greenslade pondering the performance of one of the new regulators.

News sites often feature 'news from around the internet' with often dubious stories of limited interest. Is it the end of the line for Taboola and Outbrain?

When companies fail to grow, it's the CMOs that often takes the blame. Could chatbots be the next retail opportunity?

Finally, the Peanuts/Stranger Things mashup you really wanted to see: