Category Archives: Advertising

The end of mid-size agencies? Inside the shifts that will reshape the ad business

This story is part of Ad Age’s Future of Advertising 2030 series exploring how marketing, media and creativity will evolve over the next five years.

Advertising agencies are in the process of setting strategies for the next five years despite numerous unknowns—the impact of AI, speed of consolidation and increasing ease of in-housing among them. These variables may have wide-reaching impact, including the potential demise of mid-size agencies, that marketers should be preparing for now.

On Ad Age Insider, Ad Age reporters look at the future of ad agencies and strategies that industry leaders are putting into place now to prepare.

“A lot of [agencies’] executional work becomes commoditized by AI, and a lot of marketers will have pretty robust in-house systems. So the real value and agency lie in their strategic thinking and being able to bring an outsider perspective to the equation.” –Ewan Larkin, agency reporter, Ad Age

Ad Age Insider podcast transcript

Parker Herren, host: How will the agency landscape transform by 2030? What has surprised you guys the most in your reporting on the future of agencies?

The demise of mid-size agencies

Brian Bonilla, senior agency reporter: It’s hard to be surprised, but I would say something that might surprise people in general—the role of the mid-size agency might go away by 2030, meaning we’re already seeing a lot of small, independent agencies get a lot of business, but we’re now starting to see those same agencies competing with each other and competing with large agencies and seeing a leveling of new business opportunities. And at the same time, mid-size agencies, which typically range from like 100 to maybe 250 employees, are competing with large holdco networks of like 5,000 employees for the same business. 

So by 2030, you’re going to see those mid-sized agencies either merge with other entities or sell to private equity firms or things like that. That’s going to be something that might be surprising for a lot of people, and I think will happen quicker than people realize.

How agency structures will shift

Ewan Larkin, agency reporter: This is interesting. For a couple of years, agencies have been trying to market themselves as consultants, and it hasn’t really stuck. To some degree, it has, but I think it’s obvious they are still service providers fundamentally. But I actually do think now we might see that shift start to stick a little bit. A lot of the executional work becomes commoditized by AI, and a lot of marketers will have pretty robust in-house systems. So the real value at agencies lies in their strategic thinking and being able to bring an outsider perspective to the equation. 

I think that puts them in direct contact … with the likes of Deloitte Digital and Accenture Song. So the focus for agencies really should be building up some of those consulting capabilities and commerce consulting capabilities. Agencies like VML are already starting to do this. They rolled out a unit earlier that encompasses consulting, CX and other things, and that already accounts for about 40% of their overall global revenue. So, I expect more people to make moves like this. This is one of the early stages of holding companies really being able to package up one of those offerings.

Parker: For Ad Age’s Future of Advertising package, media reporter Brandon Doerrer wrote about 2030 readiness. And chief technology reporter Garett Sloane dug into the 2030 tech stack. That sounds pretty thrilling. What did you guys find in your reporting?

Brandon: People tend to think that there are just going to be more and more integrated accounts, especially between creative and media. The walls are really coming down between those two functions. We are seeing brands increasingly hire the same agency to handle both of those functions. So, agencies are going to need to get used to those two functions not being in silos anymore, not having walls exist between those two teams.

Garett: We’re already starting to see these roles change. We’re seeing shifting ways of billing clients, different business models, different services agencies have to cater to. So, it’s already happening. It’s going to happen more and more where agencies are going to have to operate as platforms and services that can interact with brands and help brands build their ad tech stacks, acting as consultants, acting as facilitators into this futuristic landscape.

That’s where agencies need to go, and they’re starting already by developing new products and services. Whether that will work is still an open question, and if they can adjust and change—some will, some won’t.

The social AOR resurgence

Parker: Let’s talk influencers. Gillian Follett covered the future of the social and influencer space. Is there any way the future of influencers will impact agencies in 2030?

Gillian: Experts that I talked to for the story said that they predict the spectrum of influencer agencies will stretch to the extremes. So, we’ll see more brands working with influencer functions within larger holding companies, or we’ll see brands looking to very specialized boutique agencies who specialize in specific platforms or types of creators, like gaming creators, for example.

We’re also going to continue to see influencer budgets increase, not at the same meteoric rate that we’ve seen over the past couple of years, but based on forecasts from intelligence companies like eMarketer, it’s definitely on an upward trajectory. 

We’re also seeing a resurgence of social agency of record assignments from brands across different categories. Something that I spoke to one marketer about was this idea that it’s not just the brands that are trying to target Gen Z or want to be social-first anymore that are looking for social AORs. It’s brands that they wouldn’t expect, like more established legacy brands are looking for social AORs. And a lot of these brands are seeking the insights that social media can provide in terms of what consumers are looking for, the types of products that they’re craving and using social as the foundation for their marketing campaigns rather than having social be a tacked-on piece at the end.

Parker: Okay, Lindsay, I’m going to let you round out this group with some intel from your reporting on the RFP process in 2030.

Lindsay Rittenhouse, senior agency reporter: Within the RFP process, agencies are going to have to stop the theater—the glossy presentations, the pitch decks, and really showcase how you’re working as a team. Get ready to be in more chemistry meetings—enough with the showboating and the theater in the pitch.

Parker: Tell us how marketers should begin preparing for that now.

Lindsay: Well, they have to set up the process so that there are more chemistry meetings and more time for the meatier stuff, the interviewing, the briefings, the working together, and just get rid of some of the processes. You don’t have to do these massive pitch presentations. [Marketers] are the ones who set the process for the RFP, so don’t allow the theatrics.

Agencies in 2030—how to plan ahead

Parker: I want to hear everyone’s advice for how marketers or agency leaders can begin prepping for their 2030 strategy. Why don’t we just go round robin, starting with you, Brian.

Brian: Start thinking about what type of agency model do you want as a marketer. We’re seeing roster agency models become way more popular, meaning instead of having just one AOR handle everything, I’ll have a social agency here, I’ll have a creative agency here or I’ll have a roster of five creative agencies. 

If you’re an agency, start thinking about what model makes the most sense for you to be in—should I be more niche or should I broaden my capabilities? And as a marketer—same question but on the flip side. If I’m going to be spending less on marketing, but I’m expecting to have more outcomes, what is the best model that makes sense for my external partnerships? Because I do think agencies will still be necessary as much as we’re talking about in-housing and things like that.

Ewan: They need to clarify which functions they want done in-house, which ones they need outsourced, very clearly defining what they can do themselves versus what is essential that they get from an external partner. There is a push for efficiency, and, obviously, everybody wants to save costs, so they want to bring it in-house, but you are going to need an external partner. You always do need that outside perspective. So, very clearly define what needs to be done yourselves and what you need an agency for. 

But rethinking agency relationships in general—they’ve always been seen as providers, that’s what they are, but now a lot of them are going to be actually helping build those internal capabilities. So identify which agencies are high-level strategic thinkers, which ones really understand your brand and your challenges, which ones can help me build my internal chops. Those are the ones that I think are likely to have long-term value.

Brandon: On the agency side of things, if you’re a creative agency and you don’t already have media capabilities, really digging in and evaluating if it would be worth building that out. If you have a unique angle, something to offer brands to make yourself stand out from the plethora of media agencies that can do the same thing. Media is probably in a similar boat. At least having an understanding of various creative processes is going to be helpful.

On the marketer side of things, brands can just not be afraid to ask. I did a story not too long ago about how indie creative agencies can respond to requests for media services. And the reason why agencies are starting to think about either building these capabilities internally or which media agencies they can partner with is because they’re getting these requests. Marketers—don’t be afraid to ask if you have an indie creative shop that you’re working with that doesn’t do media. They’re getting used to getting that question already, and they are starting to think about how to best answer that question. So, no dumb questions is the advice.

Garett: They could start developing the services and tools, and some are. We’ve seen agencies launch AI agents—the trading bots that they can all of a sudden potentially give out to brands to start to use. A lot of these tools that agencies are building are internal, but eventually, they’re going to make them external and start shipping them to brands to use as part of their suite of services. So, agencies start building internally and then will start giving it out to the masses.

Gillian: Brands should start considering whether they want to look to agencies to help them with sharpening their social strategies to adapt to this new way of seeking consumer insights from social and using social as a starting point for marketing. For some brands, it might make more sense to develop a social media team in-house to lead these efforts for the brand. Some brands have sought social media agencies of record because of the wide range of functions that are involved in social media marketing today, like paid social, creator marketing, social media intelligence gathering. There’s just a lot that goes into it these days.

Brands should start considering whether that’s something they can do in-house, or if they need to find partners to help them develop those strategies as social becomes more and more important.

Key Takeaways

  • Mid-size agencies will likely disappear by 2030, either merging or selling to private equity firms
  • Agencies are shifting from ad makers to consultants and platform builders
  • Creative and media functions will merge as brands increasingly hire one agency for both services

Hopefully making a ruckus, one blog post at a time!

Be sure to check out my other blog, Joe’s Journey, for selected short stories and personal insights on life and its detours.

8 agency leaders divulge the most pressing issues facing their business—and how they’re navigating them

The 4As hosted a roundtable with Ad Age and seven industry leaders from holding companies and independent agencies at Advertising Week New York to discuss some of the most pressing issues facing executives today.

Lindsay Rittenhouse reported that the roundtable included a lineup of executives spanning a wide range of roles and companies: 4As CEO Justin Thomas-Copeland; Stacey Hightower, CEO of Omnicom Specialty Marketing Group; Frances Webster, CEO of independent agency Walrus; Tracey Faux-Pattani, CEO of independent shop Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners; Chris Foster, CEO of Omnicom Public Relations Group; Ian Grody, chief creative officer of independent shop Giant Spoon; Joe Baratelli, executive VP and chief creative officer of independent agency RPA; and Nada Bradbury, CEO of Ad-ID, which sets a standard for the industry to identify advertising assets across all media.

These leaders discussed a wide range of topics, including how they are using AI in their day-to-day; how they are driving value in their agencies; the means to stand out in an increasingly crowded market; and what talent they are hiring.

Some takeaways from the conversation:

How agency leaders are using AI

Webster said Walrus is using AI to respond to an “RFI right now … it’s helping us with upfront strategy and segmentation.”

“It’s like the internet from the ‘90s, you’ve got to surf the wave and you can’t have a two-year plan,” she said. “It’s a three-month plan or a six-month plan. But if you’re not engaging with it, you’re out.”

Hightower said Omnicom Specialty Marketing Group has been using AI in Europe “for quite some time.” He said the agency created a call center that has been using AI to speak with customers who dial in on branded hotlines. It’s also now bringing internal efficiencies. For example, Omnicom Specialty Marketing Group uses AI to sift through resumes.

“We do probably 5,000, on average, hires a year in Europe … We can’t get to every resume that comes into our inbox,” Hightower said.

“We’re an indie shop, so we’re bootstrapping everything,” Baratelli said. “We’re using it around the stuff no one wants to do, reporting, scoping.”

The conversation came on the heels of Madison Logic releasing new research from a Harris Interactive survey of more than 300 business-to-business marketing leaders. It found that three in four of those surveyed believe the future of advertising will be defined by AI-driven creative processes (73%) in the next five years. Two in three of those surveyed predicted personalization at scale and immersive advertising (66% each) will become more prevalent, and 84% believe traditional advertising will be dead by 2030.

Still, all of the executives agreed that advertising is a relationship business and nothing will change that.

“It’s important to point out that these are all really responsible uses of AI,” Ad-ID’s Bradbury said. “What we are seeing on our side is folks trying to understand the various uses of AI. So everybody does all this great work [and] we’re getting calls saying, ‘Can you help verify this for me? Is this a product that came out of an agency? There’s this other layer that you just can’t control [AI] that we need to start to wrap our arms around it.”

Strategists are in demand

AdAge asked what jobs are most in demand right now and strategy was the one definitive.

Faux-Pattani said BSSP is always on the hunt for great strategists, but noted that the shop sometimes struggles to find truly top candidates in that space. She said curiosity is always needed in that role, but the agency has had a hard time finding candidates who have curiosity that is “intuitive” versus “data curiosity.”

The strategy role is also shifting and putting more pressure on professionals in those roles.

Since clients are buying more “connected solutions,” agencies need strategies to be adept in everything from “commerce to brand, to media, to analytics, to creative understanding,” Thomas-Copeland said. “I don’t know any strategies that can do all of those things really well. And then at the same time in the room there was a call for strategy as a function to be front-of-house with clients. So suddenly they’re in a new environment.”

Webster argued that strategists and account people now have to “battle together … as an account strategist, you really need to understand your client’s business much better than they do.”

Hunting for new business opportunities

Most of the executives said there is a lot of opportunity to win new pieces of business, but they are far-ranging in size. Industry and agency leaders also have to be strategic in deciding what accounts to go after. 

Health care agency reviews are on the rise, for example, and Faux-Pattani said she sees a lot more “emerging brands” looking to hire shops right now.

In terms of the boon in health care agency reviews, Thomas-Copeland said that category has always been more “resilient” to macroeconomic factors. Still, 4As agency members have told the organization that even within health care marketing, “projects are not being solidified … in terms of planning and commitments, there’s a bit less of that,” he said.

Thomas-Copeland said agencies are having to place “their bets on where they’re going to look for opportunity, and trying to get really good at judging what is an opportunity that looks like it has some longevity, versus the one-and-done.”

“We’ve been very selective over the past 18 months or so in terms of the clients that we pursue from a business perspective and it’s worked,” Giant Spoon’s Grody said. “Over the last six months, we’ve won 67% of our pitches. The reason is we go after fewer, bigger, better and then we find smaller clients where we see that profound growth potential.”

Webster said Walrus has had success going after emerging brands that have reached $200 million to $400 million in revenue and are “ready to spend. They’re either getting ready for an IPO or sale, or they’ve just sold and need to show return on that investment,” she said.

For Omnicom Public Relations Group, Foster said it’s a much different situation.

“We will probably chase 2,500 RFPs in the course of a year,” he said. “We’re doing 100 or so a week as a network, if not more. The deal flow is very different in PR than advertising and media … in Europe, I’m seeing competitive consolidation in the marketplace, and so the deal sizes are small because there’s just a lot more competition.”

How to stand out in a crowded market

Faux-Pattani said she’s starting to see more intimate pitches with two or three competing shops, versus somewhere between four and six, which she welcomes. She said she sometimes will turn down a pitch if there are too many shops vying for the account.

That might be good for the agencies invited to pitch, but that means there are even fewer opportunities to get a foot in the door. The executives discussed how they are standing out in an increasingly overcrowded market that sees new agencies popping up seemingly every day to compete with holding company shops and independents alike.

“There are 14,000 agencies out there,” Webster said, making it more pertinent to understand your niche and where it makes sense for you to show up as an agency. Walrus, she said, goes after the opportunities it wants, rather than waiting for them.

“We have a robust sales department, PR program and outreach program,” she said. “For these smaller pieces of business, too, it’s much easier to hunt—to prospect, build, identify opportunities and make relationships, so we’re not actually having to go into a pitch. We close a lot of business that way.”

Hightower said Omnicom Specialty Marketing Group promotes itself through “product innovation and storytelling.”

“In Europe, we will pitch a suite of modalities, so we’ll say, ‘Give us your budget and we’ll figure out the best way to implement your spend across a number of modalities,” he said. “That has resonated well in that marketplace. In the U.S., it’s been through technology, building platforms where we are able to acquire data about the client, about their value chain, and then providing them feedback that can help them reduce costs and get more bang for their buck.”

Despite the conservative backlash to diversity initiatives, the executives said they remain committed.

The state of DEI

“From a 4As standpoint, the focus will continue to be on inclusive teams, and inclusive teams are great for business, they’re great for being an economic multiplier, they’re great for brands being much more in tune with the market,” Thomas-Copeland said.

Webster reiterated that point, saying companies with diverse boards and teams outperform those that are not.

“We’ve always been committed to inclusivity,” Grody said. “We remain committed to inclusivity. Nothing has changed.”

Hopefully making a ruckus, one blog post at a time!

Be sure to check out my other blog, Joe’s Journey, for selected short stories and personal insights on life and its detours.

Ideas, not AI, will decide who survives in 2030

In a world where everything can be personalized and optimized, there’s only one true differentiator left: ideas. (Adobe Stock)

AI will undoubtedly shrink the marketing services industry. Or so that’s the opinion of industry paper Ad Age via author Barry Lowenthal in a recent piece a few weeks back. Thought it worthwhile to share again especially to those of you who may not have seen it yet.

Many of the functions agencies are paid for today—targeting, media planning, asset versioning — are already being handled faster and cheaper by machines.

Yet the most successful agencies in 2030 won’t be those with the biggest AI budgets; they’ll be the ones still capable of original thought.

Since the explosion of generative AI, holding companies have raced to future-proof themselves, pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into the technology. They’ve hired engineers, signed vendor deals and built proprietary tools. The logic is that automation improves margins by enabling more work to be produced with less overhead, and it’s attractive to clients.

But here’s the problem: Everyone is doing the same thing.

AI platforms might look different, but they’re powered by the same foundation—similar models, trained on similar data, offering similar outputs.

AI is a great equalizer. While early investment and enterprise deals offer short-term advantages, the tools are ultimately accessible to all. As technology becomes commodified, there’s only one true differentiator left: ideas.

In a world where everything can be personalized and optimized—where every ad element, from celebrity to color palette to music cue, is engineered for conversion—what cuts through is the unexpected.

Zany, emotional, human ideas. The kinds that make people laugh out loud, tear up or text a friend because it hit a nerve. The kind no algorithm can predict because they come from life experience, not data.

Those ideas aren’t born from prompts or dashboards, but from humans living messy, interesting lives—wandering museums, walking unfamiliar streets, swapping stories at a dive bar.

The agencies that stay relevant in an AI era will be the ones that protect this kind of cultural immersion. They’ll hire for life experience, not just technical literacy. They’ll measure inspiration like they do performance, instead of grinding their teams into creative exhaustion. They’ll reward originality over speed and efficiency. 

If the goal is to survive the next five years, curiosity and creative instinct must be treated as core competencies.

That means rethinking workflows to allow time for discovery, not just delivery. It means protecting those unproductive long walks and deep rabbit holes.

The payoff won’t always show up neatly in a dashboard, so it will be a challenging pitch to the CFO. But in a world where AI devours everything else agencies in once thought made them valuable, it’s the only bet worth making.

That’s the future. And no, you can’t buy it; you have to nurture it.

********

I agree with Mr. Lowenthal, original thought leading to creatively inspired ideas will and must lead the way. I’ve been involved in this business for several decades and I realize that the industry has turned into a young person’s game. Most have grown up with AI and consider it the “standard.” That is unfortunate. It still must be considered a tool in the work belt of the creative person who’s developing the idea. It can’t be used as the end-all. That is unless sameness is one’s idea of creative thought.

Hopefully making a ruckus, one blog post at a time!

Be sure to check out my other blog, Joe’s Journey, for selected short stories and personal insights on life and its detours.

Brands should align data and creative from the start

Adobe Stock

An unlikely pairing some would surmise but they’re actually made for each other. In another of various selected articles from AdAge, this article I read recently by Matt Kaupa discusses how best for brands to align data with creative and do so from the beginning. Developing and studying one or the other separately won’t do any good.

At first glance, “data” and “creative” feel like opposites. One loves structure, the other color. One obsesses over decimal points, the other ellipses. But when they team up, the results can be surprising. And the best work happens when they collaborate from the start—not when data shows up at the end to judge. Here’s how to get there.

Don’t wait until after launch

Too often, data gets invited to the party only after a campaign is out in the world. At that point, it’s just there to grade the work, not shape it. Data and creative are two ingredients in the same dish. If you taste the soup only after it’s served, you can complain about the flavor—but you missed your shot to add the seasoning.

Strategy: Bring analysts into the creative kickoff. Audience insights—demographics, psychographics, behaviors, even reactions to past campaigns—can shape tone, format and story direction from day one. If you want to measure success, then why wouldn’t measurement help guide the strategy?

Example: Want to talk to busy moms in Charlotte? Don’t guess. See what they actually engage with at 10 p.m. Trying to position a brand as “premium” but still “relatable”? Let sentiment data show the words they use—not the words you wish they used.

Speak in the audience’s words

Every brand has its own vocabulary, but if your audience doesn’t speak that language, you’re basically shouting into the void. It doesn’t matter how clever your copy is if no one understands it—or worse, if it feels out of touch.

Strategy: Pull top organic search terms and social comments into the copy deck. Use their words, not yours.

Example: In industries like health care or finance, expert language doesn’t always translate. Otolaryngology? That’s just an ENT.

Don’t ignore A/B test losers

Everyone loves a winner, but the losing versions of a campaign are often way more interesting. They show you where instincts clashed with reality—and that tension is where new ideas live.

Strategy: Treat every test as a learning lab, not just a scoreboard. Every version has a story to tell—whether it’s what to do, or what to avoid.

Example: Sometimes insights come from a single weird data blip. Why did that version spike in Wisconsin? It didn’t have anything to do with cheese—or overrated football teams (skol!).

Let dashboards tell a story

Dashboards don’t have to be painful. But let’s be honest: They usually are. They’re dense, ugly and built for people who already live and breathe numbers. For everyone else? They’re more like a punishment than a resource.

Strategy: Co-build reporting visuals with designers so your dashboards are as compelling as your campaigns. When data looks like a story, people actually use it. Also, dummy-proof your insights: structure data and visuals in a way that reduces the number of assumptions—especially wrong ones—that your audience has to make.

Example: Imagine if your media dashboard looked less like a spreadsheet exploded and more like an infographic—highlighting trends, telling a narrative, and pulling out the “so what” at a glance. One client stopped ignoring their reports entirely once we reframed their monthly dashboard like a campaign storyboard. Suddenly, the CFO wasn’t just tolerating the data—he was quoting it in meetings.

Flip feedback into fuel

Brands collect mountains of feedback but rarely use it for anything more than “good job” or “try again.” What if, instead of treating it like a report card, you treated it like raw material? Customers are basically writing copy for you every day.

Strategy: Use real-time listening tools to turn survey responses or social reactions into iterative campaign content.

Example: Imagine a spot stitched together directly from customer feedback. Or a campaign whose copy comes entirely from what people are saying online.

Wrap smarter

When the campaign’s over, most people move on to the next thing. But the wrap-up is where the hidden treasure lives. Go beyond “what performed” and dig into why—because those answers set you up for the next win.

Strategy: Cluster analysis can reveal new audience segments. Performance patterns can challenge assumptions. Maybe Gen Z does like long-form after all—just not when you lead with product shots.

Data shouldn’t chase creative, and creative shouldn’t wait for data. The smartest work happens when both teams co-own the problem from day one. Remember that data isn’t just numbers. Just as we need to speak our audience’s language, we also need to speak the creatives’ language. Incorporate qualitative data—social comments, organic searches, reviews, surveys—to make sure we don’t lose the forest for the numbers.

Hopefully making a ruckus, one blog post at a time!

Be sure to check out my other blog, Joe’s Journey, for selected short stories and personal insights on life and its detours.

Creative ideas—not spreadsheets—drive long-term brand growth

In a recent edition of Ad Age I caught an interesting article posted by Jon Gibbs having to do with the importance of creative ideas to brand growth. I thought it appropriate enough to share it with you. So here goes . . . enjoy!

In today’s climate of shrinking budgets, AI automation and relentless pressure to prove ROI fast, marketers are increasingly forced to make creative decisions based on what’s measurable rather than what’s meaningful. Dashboards and spreadsheets dominate boardroom conversations. But metrics tell you only what has worked. Creativity shows you what could work.

That difference is critical. The most powerful growth doesn’t come from simply following the data; it comes from ideas bold enough to break new ground. Ideas that capture attention, stir emotion and become memorable. Safe decisions may feel efficient, but safe doesn’t build distinctiveness. Safe builds sameness. And sameness is a dangerous place for brands to be in a hyper-competitive, three-second-attention world.

Creativity is what gives brands an edge. It’s how you move from being seen to being remembered. In other words, when creativity leads, the numbers follow.

The problem is that creative ambition is often cut short by over-measurement. Distinctive ideas can feel unfamiliar at first, and unfamiliarity makes people uncomfortable in a test group. Measure too early, and you’re often just testing comfort levels, not long-term effectiveness. As a result, bold work gets diluted or dropped before it has the chance to breathe.

So how can leaders, whether running an agency or leading marketing inside a brand, protect creativity in a world ruled by metrics?

Trust your instincts

We often turn to measurement when we’re unsure about trusting our instincts. But instinct isn’t guesswork: it’s built on years of experience, consumer understanding and category knowledge. Leaders who know their brand and market well should feel confident backing that expertise when making decisions.

That doesn’t mean being reckless. It means recognising that the best creative decisions often come from people who understand the brand and its audience most deeply, not from what a spreadsheet says.

Protect the process

Great ideas take time to evolve. They need space to be explored, debated and refined. Forcing ideas through rapid testing cycles or rushed approval rounds is more likely to drown out the creative ideas in favor of safer ideas proven by metrics. Agency leaders should create an environment where their teams can push boundaries without the constant fear of metrics-based rejection early on. Brand leaders must give their agencies the space to explore, not demand instant metrics.

The world’s obsession with efficiency often makes this worse. Too many global brand decisions happen in 15-minute Teams calls with a yes or no verdict. That’s not enough time for the deeper conversations that sharpen ideas. Feedback loops matter; every time work is put on the table, the team learn more about each other’s insights and instincts. Cutting those discussions out cuts out a lot of that depth that drives strong creative ideas. 

Protecting the process also means resisting the urge to test too soon. The point of iterative feedback is to build confidence before the work goes in front of consumers; otherwise, you end up evaluating unfinished thinking.

Know when to hold your nerve

Almost every bold idea meets a moment of doubt. They’re supposed to feel novel or different. Leaders earn their value by having the conviction to back the work. If the strategy is sound, the team is experienced and the creative instinct is strong, that’s the time to stand by it. 

Brand campaigns that hold their nerve are usually the ones that people remember. Nike did this with its “So Win” Super Bowl return this year (after 27 years), which highlighted the rise of female athletes. Rather than celebrity cameos or quick laughs, it backed a cinematic, purpose-driven film, and the risk paid off with one of the most celebrated ads of the night.

Use metrics wisely

Metrics are essential for informing insight, for sense-checking later in the process and for guiding optimization once work is in market. But they shouldn’t dictate the earliest imaginative ideas, because those ideas need space to breathe. 

And not all research is equal. Too often, multimillion-dollar brand decisions hinge on the cheapest possible online focus group. Thirty people in a £500 panel should not determine the fate of a £25 million brand. Poor-quality research is worse than no research at all. Whether you’re commissioning research on the brand side or interpreting it on the agency side, resist the temptation to reduce decisions to the cheapest possible test.

Telstra’s recent stop-motion campaign, which scooped the Cannes Lions Film Craft Grand Prix, is a good example: 26 playful shorts that probably wouldn’t have survived an early focus group, but once in market, they resonated widely. It proves the value of creative originality.

Champion distinctiveness over novelty

Bold does not mean weird for weird’s sake. Distinctive ideas are rooted in what makes a brand unique. It amplifies personality, sharpens positioning and makes the brand easier to recall in buying moments. Leaders should push teams to be distinctive, not just different, by allowing space for imaginative thinking, while asking the right questions: what does the brand want to be known for? What makes it meaningfully different? How can creativity make that difference visible and memorable?

Too many people today have become conditioned to believe that what can be measured is what matters most, but agency and brand leaders need to show that the truth is the opposite. What matters most often can’t be fully measured in advance. 

The campaigns that thrive will be the ones with leaders who defend creativity against premature measurement, holding their nerve when bold ideas feel risky, and treating creativity as the most important driver of growth.

Hopefully making a ruckus, one blog post at a time!

Be sure to check out my other blog, Joe’s Journey, for selected short stories and personal insights on life and its detours.

The future of ad jobs—what changes to expect by 2030 and why it matters

In my recent past I ran across this story about future advertising jobs and thought it interesting in light of the increasing presence of AI. The story is part of Ad Age’s Future of Advertising 2030 series exploring how marketing, media and creativity will evolve over the next five years. I thought it worth sharing. Credit Lindsay Rittenhouse, senior reporter, Ad Age.

As the advertising industry transforms, the skills needed to climb the ladder are as well. At the top, chief marketing officers may take on new duties as others in the C-suite are replaced by AI; at the entry level, young marketers need to develop targeted and differentiated skills to stand out against work that could be automated.

And the relationship between the highest and lowest workers may change as the need for apprentice-like models emerges to maintain the talent pipeline.

“Some agencies are now rethinking how junior roles are comprised…By 2030, they’re going to be looking for generalists, more client-facing junior employees, more strategists versus the intern-type tasks, the reporting and those technical kinds of jobs.”

Ad Age Insider podcast transcript

Parker Herren, host: Let’s dig in to today’s topic: inside the rapidly changing job market and how talent can plan ahead for their career paths. Jack, how will the CMO job look different in 2030?

The CMO of 2030

Jack Neff, editor-at-large: For CMOs, AI may actually help them to some extent in that AI is good at what a lot of CMOs aren’t good at: data, analytics, legal logistics, product science, things of that nature. And some folks believe that AI will lessen the role of other participants in the C-suite and increase the role of marketers.

The new entry level

Parker: Lindsay, I know you had perspective on the opposite end of the industry. How will entry-level jobs change by 2030?

Lindsay Rittenhouse, senior reporter:From my reporting, AI is going to drastically change the role of junior employees. So a lot of the tasks that they’re doing right now in media, there’s reporting and certain technical tasks—AI can take over, which threatens their jobs. But some agencies are now rethinking how junior roles are comprised.

They’re building junior roles. By 2030, they’re going to be looking for generalists, more client-facing junior employees, more strategists versus them doing the intern-type tasks, the reporting and those technical kinds of jobs.

The new AI workflow

Parker: AI seems to be a recurring theme. So let’s popcorn over to Garett Sloane, Ad Age’s chief technology reporter. Then we’ll go to senior agency reporter Brian Bonilla and media reporter Brandon Doerrer.

Garett Sloane, chief technology reporter:I’m sure we’re going to hear a lot of this throughout the package, this sort of angst about whether AI will be taking jobs, how much it will replace. And when you talk to the experts, it’s always, “AI will supplement your job,” and, “it’s going to just be an assistant,” and, “it’s going to make you do more work, not less; we’re going to need more workers, not fewer.” 

I think that may be a little optimistic. I think some of these AI agents being developed and other tools built on AI—these are going to replace a lot of work that is currently being done. You’re going to have to be working with AI and someone who’s knowledgeable about it to manage a lot more and do a lot more with less. So I think we have to be ready for that.

Brian: There’s a few different things here. Again, with AI, we’re seeing resumes being catered to AI-specific roles. And a lot of times, people are looking for people who understand how to prompt-engineer specific tasks. And we’re seeing [applications] that have specific tests for different AI functions. Talent needs to be thinking about getting prepared for that, just like how when I was growing up, I was prepared for certain questions. I think these are going to be very common. 

Beyond AI, we’re seeing a few different rises. Social media accounts, in general, are growing within agencies. I’m expecting a rise in social media expertise, same as strategists and consulting-type roles, especially as agencies like VaynerMedia, for example, they’re investing in this new product called Co-Lab, where the whole premise is basically having agency teams built within in-house teams at brands. And they believe that by 2030, this can make up 50% of their revenue. That is not a traditional advertising agency role. 

So how do you prepare for that? You need to start thinking more strategically. How are you building your consulting expertise just as much as your creative thinking expertise?

Brandon: I spoke with Matt Moorut, who is an analyst at Gartner, for my 2030 checklist story, and we talked a lot about how the unpredictability of the next five years makes it a lot harder to justify hiring specialists anymore, particularly in media. It just doesn’t make a lot of sense to hire people who have a lot of hyper-expertise on one platform or a small handful of platforms. It seems like marketers are going to benefit from having a broad skill set and being generalists.

Parker: How can talent start preparing right now for that unpredictability?

Brandon: Something that Matt and I talked about is that it makes more sense to train the employees you have right now to be more generalists, give them a broader set of tools, especially in the media landscape. Get them familiar with all the different places that they can help a brand show up. These people already know the needs of a brand, of a company, and it’s going to be easier to train the people you already have than to hire new generalists and get them familiar with everything that a brand needs.

Parker: Who else has a tip for marketers? Jack?

Jack: [Marketers] should probably work on becoming adept at managing AI as part of their workforce essentially, and becoming conceivably the force within the C-suite that is better at working with AI than anybody else.

The emerging apprenticeship model

Parker: Okay, I’m seeing a hand. This is Creativity Editor Tim Nudd with a little nuance on this AI conversation.

Tim Nudd, creativity editor: One thing I think is interesting and important as agencies and brands get ready for this new structure is finding ways to maintain the excitement in the creative department. One interesting thing is that people worry about what’s called “cognitive atrophy” when it comes to AI, which is where if AI does a lot for you, then you start to think less yourself and maybe you lose skills. And I think that can be true in creativity as well, where if AI is coming up with most of your ideas and you’re just curating them, that could have a negative impact on people’s creativity. 

One thing that agencies can do to prepare is to think about how to guard against that. If you think back to the Renaissance, there was this apprentice model where the young folks learning a craft would have direct access to the master. Creative departments could end up being structured that way too, where juniors work more directly with senior creatives much earlier in their careers. That doesn’t happen a lot now. 

So, to guard against AI doing all the work and people not actually learning any skills, marketers and agencies would do well to really focus on human mentorship and really getting people to learn those skills, the fundamentals of creativity, fundamentals of advertising earlier in their careers, or really [give] access to the top folks.

What this may end up doing is hollowing out the middle management within creative agencies, where you really have the seniors who can work directly with the brands, and then you’ve got more juniors who are learning the trade directly from them. In some ways, it could end up being a throwback to the centuries-old model of learning from the master within advertising too.

Parker: Garrett, take us home with a last thought on how talent can prepare for the industry’s future job market.

Garett: They should be incorporating AI into their general daily work. You’re using ChatGPT every day—I’m sure people are already doing that. It’s already become part of the basic computing tools we’re using. 

A fun term to come out of my future of ad tech story is a topic known as “vibe targeting.” Vibe targeting is using AI in sort of a jazzy, freestyle way where you’re prompting it to come up with new ideas and for targeting in programmatic advertising. It’s about finding new audiences, just going with the flow to figure out the best way to come up with a target audience, feeding AI different pieces of data so you can uncover new trends maybe from social media or from something about your brand. And then having AI assist you with just good vibes.

Hopefully making a ruckus, one blog post at a time!

Be sure to check out my other blog, Joe’s Journey, for selected short stories and personal insights on life and its detours.

Will branded experiences outperform ads by 2030?

Some say yes but CMOs are still chasing ads while consumers crave something beyond a screen. I recently ran across an article in AdAge about this and thought it worthwhile to pass on. Seems like the industry is changing right before our eyes. It’s difficult to keep up let alone try to figure out where it’s headed years from now. Hopefully this article will clarify some of the mystery.

The rules of attention have changed. Ads cost more than ever but work less than ever. People are paying to skip, block or scroll right past them. But experiences? They’re lining up for those and sometimes paying to get in.

Look at Lollapalooza, Coachella or the US Open, where the brands aren’t a backdrop, they’re part of the headline. Festivals and big cultural moments aren’t just about music or sports anymore; they’re about the branded experiences people talk about long after the event ends.

The disconnect is clear. Netflix has 247 million subscribers paying to avoid ads. Spotify Premium has 220 million doing the same. Every one of those subscriptions is a consumer saying: “My attention is valuable enough that I’ll pay to protect it.” Yet advertisers keep pouring money into channels people are actively opting out of. That’s not a strategy; that’s a slow leak.

Meanwhile, experiential is thriving. The category grew 10.5% last year to $128 billion. Why? Because instead of interrupting what people want, it is what people want. A great branded experience doubles as entertainment, content and memory. It creates emotion, builds loyalty and turns people into advocates.

Vibrant Urban Pop-Up Storefront Transforms Cityscape with Interactive Marketing and Philanthropy – Adobe Stock

Younger consumers are driving this shift fastest. They don’t just want to sit back and watch a brand throw messages at them. They want to take part, contribute, belong. Creator culture proves it, and experiential is the live version of that same energy.

Action above ads. Experience above everything. The brands that win are the ones that stop interrupting what people care about and become what people care about.

The shift is already happening. The only question is: Will you lead it, or watch it pass you by?

Well?

Hopefully making a ruckus, one blog post at a time!

Be sure to check out my other blog, Joe’s Journey, for selected short stories and personal insights on life and its detours.

Advertising Ethics Must Become a Core Creative Capability

Ethics. A word that is at times used too little because most people don’t think ethics exists any longer. It has been said that a man or woman is not truly whole if he or she does not possess ethical behavior within. It’s has become painfully obvious that some of us don’t. That’s sad.

It’s particularly troubling in marketing and advertising. For years those industries, especially advertising, had a lower ethics image than used car salesmen. Fortunately, that image is not as bad as it was. Today’s environment and enhanced creativity has increased the need for a true belief and practice of ethical behavior in what the industry puts forth to the consumer.

The following article is a good dissertation on the importance of ethics in advertising and its crucial need when developing creativity.

*******

If the world’s most prestigious stage for creativity can be gamed, what does that say about the structures behind the stories we tell?

There are still advertising professionals who treat ethics as something to call in after the crash, never to integrate into the system. 

The Cannes Lions cheating scandal has exposed a fracture at the heart of advertising: a growing contradiction between the public ideals that the advertising industry promotes and the problematic business behaviors behind the scenes.

In the advertising industry, we like to think of ourselves as storytellers. But in truth, we are choice architects. We shape how people see, feel and decide, often invisibly, powerfully and at scale. That is a position of enormous influence, and it carries a moral impact.

As legal scholar Cass Sunstein has long argued, even small nudges can have major consequences. What we design into our messaging, the defaults, the frames and the incentives, can improve lives or quietly exploit them. In advertising, as in public policy, how we shape choice matters as much as what we say.

Yet, astonishingly, there are still advertising professionals who treat ethics like outsourced IT support: something to call in after the crash, never to integrate into the system.

This is not just shortsighted. It’s reckless. Ethics is not a bolt-on; it is the foundation. No trust, no transaction. Ethics cannot be outsourced; it must be embedded into every campaign as a priority capability.

The ethical advantage

Advertising thrives when people believe in it. Yet today, surveys show consumer trust in advertising hovering near historic lows. Greenwashing, data misuse and AI-manipulated content have all made audiences wary of what they see. Worse, new entrants to the profession increasingly ask: Does this industry reflect my values?

The answer must be yes. But only if we earn it.

Ethical advertising isn’t a compliance checkbox; it’s a design choice. And it can be a competitive edge. Agencies and brands that adopt clear ethical standards, disclose targeting criteria, evidence-backed sustainability claims and consent-based personalization are not only preempting legal risk, but signaling integrity. And integrity is sticky.

Consumers, employees, shareholders and customers all want to work with firms they can trust. That trust must be built by actions, not taglines.

The role of learning and professional development

Ethical decision-making in advertising isn’t instinctive; it’s learned. As the landscape evolves, so too must the frameworks and training that guide professionals in the field. We are entering an era where fluency in ethical reasoning is as essential as creative talent or data literacy. This is the professional norm in law, finance, medicine, architecture, engineering, real estate and most other major professions.

That’s why continuous learning matters. Whether you’re navigating consent-based data use, sustainability claims or AI-generated content, knowing how to assess what’s fair, transparent and responsible requires both study and structure. Ethical practice is not just a matter of personal judgment; it’s a professional discipline. 

What comes next

Ethical practice doesn’t constrain creativity; it liberates it. When boundaries are clear and trust is high, bold ideas flourish. When young professionals believe they’re part of something credible, they stay. And when clients see ethics as a lever, not a liability, better work gets made.

The Institute for Advertising Ethics is an organization that spearheads ethical standards in education of our profession. I am a founding member and firmly believe in the continued development of the professionals in our industry. Ethics is a standard of practice we dare not let go to the wayside. After all, excellence in creativity is at stake, along with our reputation as practitioners of the industry.

Havas Puts Neurodivergent Creatives Center Stage at Cannes Lions

“Beyond the Brief” aims to redefine creative inclusion

This is another article I came across from the Cannes Festival last month that I wanted to share. It was written by AUDREY KEMP, a staff reporter for Adweek based in New York City. It has an interesting take on the creative industry and the players of today leading us into advertising’s future.

Havas is using Cannes Lions’ global stage to challenge the ad industry’s assumptions about what creative talent looks like—and who gets to be included.

On Monday, June 16, the French holding company debuted “Beyond the Brief,” a global campaign that positions neurodivergent minds as the future of the creative industry.

The effort builds on Havas’ Neuroverse initiative, launched in March, which supports the recruitment, retention, and development of neurodivergent talent through training, inclusive design, and partnerships. It’s also backed by new research from the agency, in partnership with nonprofit Understood.org and the 4A’s, that examines how neurodivergent creatives experience the workplace.

One stat that stood out to Donna Murphy, global CEO of Havas Creative and Health Networks, is that 40% of neurodivergent people are unemployed.

“The creative power they have is bar none,” Murphy told ADWEEK. “We saw a unique opportunity, not only for inclusion, but also for the market expansion of our clients.”

Inclusion as Innovation

Havas sees the lack of neurodiverse talent in advertising not just as an inclusion issue, but a source of untapped commercial potential. According to the agency’s study, over half of Gen Z identifies as neurodivergent—a demographic shift that’s forcing brands to reconsider how they design, market, and communicate.

“They think differently, they have sensory issues, and they see differently. If they go into a store and it’s not curated properly, and they’re overwhelmed, they leave,” said Murphy. “If you aren’t speaking to them, you’re going to miss that whole part of the market.”

The agency’s work around neurodivergence isn’t new. In 2023, Havas created a campaign for Reckitt-owned detergent brand, Vanish, that followed the daily life of a young autistic girl. During development, the team learned that autism and ADHD are often underdiagnosed in women and girls—a theme the campaign brought to light.

The spot sparked national conversation in the U.K., racking up 5 million TikTok views in 24 hours and, according to Murphy, leading to “the highest ever month of autism diagnosis.”

“Beyond the Brief” takes that advocacy global, with teaser ads along Cannes’ Croisette posing the question: “What if the future of creativity doesn’t look like the past—and never did?”

The campaign culminated in a main stage panel on Monday at the Lumière Theatre in the Palais, titled “Neurodivergent Minds: They Don’t Need Advertising—Advertising Needs Them.” Timed with Neurodiversity Pride Day, the session featured Murphy; global recording artist Lola Young; Renee Connolly, chief belonging and inclusion officer at Merck; and The New York Times’ Michael Barbaro as moderator.

The campaign title is also a deliberate nod to the awards culture of Cannes.

“We have to remind ourselves sometimes that Cannes is an award show,” said Loris Repellin, chief of staff, Havas Creative and Havas Health Networks. “The campaign that receives the most awards [is the one that] goes beyond the brief.”

Tools for Change

Off the Croisette, Havas is building infrastructure to support neurodivergent talent. The agency has developed training programs and partnered with an architecture firm to design more inclusive spaces, complete with VR simulations to illustrate sensory processing differences in the workplace.

The agency is expanding these efforts across its network, including through Havas People—its talent communications and employer branding division—and a growing neurodiversity practice. Havas has also begun hiring neurodivergent talent, including Sydney, a former intern now working as a copywriter, and Catherine, a leading SEO expert—though the agency did not share their full names.

The network is planning an experiment at the festival following an influencer marketing shopping spree

But systemic change, Murphy said, takes more than hiring. “They work totally differently. Sometimes they need to work remotely. Sometimes they need quiet space. Sometimes they need extra time. Sometimes they need less time,” she said of neurodivergent people. “Traditional employees don’t always have the patience to deal with it… which is why the training is so important.”

Murphy admitted that while Havas has already begun its journey to include neurodiverse talent in its workforce, “we don’t have all the answers… we’re still learning as we go.”

But she maintained that agencies that don’t embrace this growing talent pool are “going to fall behind.”

Hopefully making a ruckus, one blog post at a time!

Be sure to check out my other blog, Joe’s Journey, for selected short stories and personal insights on life and its detours.

Viagra’s Emotional Rebrand Wins the Cannes Lions Pharma Grand Prix 

Vaseline and New Zealand Herpes Foundation also take top health honors

A bold herpes awareness campaign took home top honors in the Health categories at Cannes Lions 2025.

I know that Cannes has been over for a week or so but I read this and wanted to share it. Thanks toAUDREY KEMP, a staff reporter for Adweek based in New York City. Good advice and a good read, especially for those who may not be up on Cannes.

Pharma Lions

Viagra won the Grand Prix in the Pharma category.

The “Make Love Last” campaign by Ogilvy Shanghai and Viatris repositions Viagra with an emotional, cinematic narrative focused on intimacy and long-term relationships. The campaign marks a departure from more clinical or humor-driven approaches and was praised for its film craft and cultural sensitivity.

The sexual wellness brand’s cinematic campaign led the Health category winners at Cannes. Other Grand Prix honors went to Unilever’s Vaseline and a bold nonprofit awareness push for herpes education.

Health and Wellness Lions

Unilever’s Vaseline won the Grand Prix in Health and Wellness.

The “Vaseline Verified” campaign, led by Ogilvy Singapore, used social media creators to combat skincare misinformation online. The effort stood out for addressing health literacy in underserved communities and using platform-native storytelling to restore trust in science.

Health Grand Prix for Good

The New Zealand Herpes Foundation won the Grand Prix for Good.

“The Best Place in the World to Have Herpes,” developed by Finch and Motion Sickness, reframed stigma around sexually transmitted infections through bold humor and transparency. With help from real patients, the campaign used outdoor, digital and long-form content to drive destigmatization and raise awareness globally.

Review all the Cannes Lions Grand Prix winners here.

Hopefully making a ruckus, one blog post at a time!