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Amanda Richman, who led GroupM agency Mindshare in North America, suddenly left the organization last March and is now joining digital marketing agency Wpromote’s board of directors.
The independent shop is known for its specialization in performance marketing, and for its significant growth trajectory. It made Adweek’s list of Fastest-Growing Agencies in 2021, 2022 and 2023. In fall 2022, it landed an investment from private equity firm ZMC, which aided the agency’s ability to scale.
Marketers overall are eschewing traditional media buys as linear spend dwindles, which is a good thing for Wpromote. Some marketers are forging new relationships with relatively young agencies that are part of a new wave of shops like Wpromote—those that established expertise in areas like performance marketing.
Now eager to expand and manage larger pieces of the advertising pie, Wpromote and some of its industry peers are broadening their service offerings. With Richman now on Wpromote’s board, the shop is readying itself to chase down larger clients and more full-funnel projects.
“Those [clients] that are leaning into performance from a brand-first mentality, I think, provide a good footprint for how Wpromote can actually scale and truly work across full-funnel solutions,” Richman told Adweek.
Redefining a performance mindset
Richman will work across the organization and focus on operational tasks, like capabilities building, market positioning and how to meet larger client needs.
“There are no lines as far as departments and specifics that would actually inhibit me from making an impact wherever I can help the most,” she said.
Even large companies, which often gravitate toward big agencies with so-called buying clout, are focusing more on performance.
Agencies that actively review digital media campaign metrics can help marketers better control their investments in online channels. This frequent monitoring allows agencies to adjust their social media investment strategy and spend based on what’s working, and focus on using media to hit specific business goals like conversions.
If you ask Richman, business transformation is synonymous with modern performance marketing—“whether that’s finding growth through new audiences, looking at how they can be more efficient in spending their marketing dollars or accelerating the pace [of investment], so that they’re seeing more agility in their partners to get to solutions faster,” she said.
Business transformation for clients—and the agency
Richman plans to apply learnings from her background at WPP, which often competes for accounts with media spend that reaches $1 billion, to advise Wpromote. Specifically, she’ll help Wpromote understand what larger clients look for in an agency.
She led Mindshare for two years, after succeeding Adam Gerhart in 2021 after his promotion from North America CEO to global CEO. Before that, she led another GroupM agency, Wavemaker, in the U.S. market. She previously worked within other holding companies, Publicis and IPG. She is proud of her work at GroupM, she told Adweek, although why she left last March remains a mystery.
“At that time, GroupM decided to take a change in direction, and I certainly accepted that,” Richman said, declining to share more.
Since then, Richman became an executive-in-residence at the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). She also spent time reflecting on what today’s brand leaders care most about, concluding that technology and a performance mindset are crucial to their success. With this in mind, she gravitated to Wpromote.
Wpromote leaders, Richman thinks, now refer to the agency as a business transformation firm—not a “performance agency,” a moniker that implies a digital first, albeit more limited offering. With the former WPP leader now on its board, Wpromote is preparing for a transformative year of its own.
