Initiative US CEO Stacy DeRiso: Client Retention Is Impossible Without Happy Employees

The agency had just secured the T-Mobile business—a $1.2 billion account. Amid the “great resignation,” Initiative retained a surprising number of its employees. But as new business came in, many employees had to navigate account onboarding processes remotely.

Meanwhile, DeRiso had to keep the proverbial plane flying and satisfy Initiative’s existing clients. Achieving this balance was the new CEO’s priority, and she succeeded. In 2022, Initiative retained all its clients. 

“What it made us think about was, what does partnership need to look like and feel like in our new normal, both professionally and personally? Because a lot of those [professional and personal] dynamics were really intertwined at the time,” she told Adweek. 

DeRiso’s leadership style is all about equilibrium. The agency approximately doubled in size over two years under her direction—even as this year’s fraught economy put pressure on many others. Pulling off high growth and client retention comes down to constantly growing and setting firm boundaries that benefit both clients and employees.  

“Half of [the growth] comes from organic growth, which means we’re growing and evolving as our clients are growing and evolving, as their needs are changing,” DeRiso said. “I think that says a lot about us, actually,” she added.

Initiative, which won Adweek’s 2023 Global Media Agency of the Year award, takes pride in its various frameworks and problem-solving methodologies, including its Fame and Flow framework, which helped it land the $450 million Nike business. Fame and Flow involves merging memorable brand marketing initiatives with performance strategies like in-depth knowledge of customer purchase journeys.

Fame and Flow aside, DeRiso bakes processes or programs into virtually every part of the business. 

Early account work involved creating what the CEO calls “Empathy Charters.” They’re exactly what they sound like: agreements between the agency, employees and clients that clarify expectations. Charters cover things like the number of hours employees should spend in meetings versus working on projects; which days employees and their clients should do fun activities together, either virtually or in person; and what topics employees should reserve for email threads versus Slack.

“We’ve rolled these [Empathy Charters] out across our clients, and our TRR scores are a reflection of that,” DeRiso said. TRR stands for “The Referral Rating,” a measurement developed by The Client Relationship Consultancy that reflects how a client feels about an agency partner.

“Growing up with your growth means putting some of that discipline in place: putting rigor in place, having a real process and methodology to how we approach our business, our clients’ businesses and the challenges they give to us,” DeRiso said.

Work-life balance 2.0

An Empathy Charter is one way an agency can achieve work-life balance, an elusive ideal in the advertising industry. This year, Initiative decided to take the concept further. 

“We operate on our team or client bubbles,” DeRiso said. “How do we pop that bubble and learn from each other?” she wondered. 

It began with DeRiso overseeing Walk a Mile, a new employee benefit permitting role swaps for an agreed-upon period. It helps employees staffed across different accounts empathize with each other. Plus, it aids in effectively cross-training them, DeRiso said.

Earlier this year, a Chicago-based employee staffed on the Nintendo account swapped places with an LA-based employee on the Arby’s account. 

“So physically, they went to the different offices. They became part of those teams. They learned about those client businesses, and they were in different crafts,” DeRiso said. To get the word out about Walk a Mile and its benefits, the two employees spoke about the experience at an agencywide town hall. “They became friends,” DeRiso added. 

Walking a mile in clients’ shoes

Initiative decided the program was so effective that it launched the concept with one of its clients and plans to roll out an expanded version later this year.  The broadened program would make it possible for agency and client employees to physically trade places for about a week to better understand each other’s culture, teammates and priorities. 

Heading into the end of the year, DeRiso is also extending the Walk a Mile program to global offices. An employee based in New York could go to Australia; the Australia-based employee could go to London, and so on. 

The company’s diversity and retention metrics are proof that these investments in culture are working so far, DeRiso said. Earlier this year, Initiative released its metrics to Adweek. Even during the “great resignation,” Initiative’s 17% global attrition rate was notably lower than the industry’s estimated average (widely believed to be around 30%). In 2022, half the agency’s new hires identified as BIPOC. Then there are the Net Promoter Scores (NPS), which Initiative parent group Mediabrands calculates on a yearly basis, based on employees’ responses to its annual #CloserTogether survey. The latest scores, which measure satisfaction, showed that Initiative’s employees are four times happier than they were 18 months ago. 

DeRiso’s devotion to cultivating employees’ happiness stands out among agency leaders. Recently, DeRiso’s put money behind the idea, introducing a new initiative called The Marinate Cultureship.

The program provides a $1,000 cash benefit to employees launching side hustles. (Employees apply for the benefit and are selected during a name draw.) “They’re making hot sauces, perfumes and jewelry, and some people are training to be yoga instructors,” DeRiso said. “We care about people’s passions and their lives outside of this.”

Ask DeRiso what the secret to employee and client happiness is, and she’ll say the two are “completely interdependent;” an agency can’t have one without the other.

This story is part of Adweek’s Beyond the Transaction special feature, which spotlights the people and strategies driving business growth and brand awareness.