The future for brands and their agencies will see the chief marketing officers handling the brand experience rather than waiting for the agency to figure it out, as well as agencies not delivering a functional “one-stop shop” for clients. At least, that’s the view of the latest Forrester predictions for next year.

The Predictions 2016: The New Benchmark for Brand Management report released by Forrester yesterday outlines how CMOs are now going to be the ones managing agency ecosystems.

As the number of agencies brands use has ballooned out – besides just the ad and media agencies, there’s now social media agencies, digital agencies, experiential agencies and more – it’s meant marketers have been struggling to figure out the role they play when trying to juggle it all.

“And while the industry is moving toward consolidation — as shown by an increase in requests for proposals for all-in solutions — we don’t believe that agencies will be able to expertly offer a one-stop shop,” the report states.

Forrester predicts, and believes marketers should, stop looking for the one integrated agency to do it all, and instead figure out a way to manage all the agencies they have.

“Each agency partner has a specific role in crafting a connected experience, and by focusing on a stable core set of strategic partners, the agencies have built a healthy working relationship with each other and the brand.”

Similarly, the report said trying to get all the agencies to work together harmoniously is difficult, and is up to the brand to coordinate it internally.

“CMOs must create a strong centralised role to manage not only agency relationships but also the process in which agencies are screened and evaluated.”

And Forrester highlights it will be these marketers who effectively manage the agencies whose brands will come out on top, and will “stop relying on agencies to figure it all out”.