How Mischief, FCB and VaynerMedia Keep Evolving to Meet Client Demands

The world of advertising is never straightforward, with agencies following societal and tech trends to stay relevant and steer clients in the directions their customers are taking. And as the rate of change has steadily increased—helped along by technology—agencies have had to keep up to survive. With generative AI as the latest major disruption in the business cycle, agency models will have to transform while continuing to deliver for their clients and drive better brand performance. And for that evolution to be effective, it must be purposeful. “If you're running an agency, and it's a successful agency, now it doesn't look the same as it did last year, two years ago, three years ago, four years ago,” said Emma Armstrong, chief executive of the 150-year-old agency FCB New York, at ADWEEK’s Outlook 2024 event. “We talk a lot about either a static model or an ever-evolving model. If you're not ever-evolving, then you're not meeting your clients' needs and you're not changing as the world changes around you,” she added. Mastercard’s Gen AI Tool for Small Businesses Limits Bias But a constant evolution means frequent internal readjustments, which can be a challenging for an agency leader to oversee and guide their teams through. Also on the panel was Kerry McKibbin, partner and president of ADWEEK's 2023 U.S. Agency of the Year Mischief @ No Fixed Address, who highlighted the industry shift of agencies not selling services to clients but rather aiming to solve their problems in partnership. “We have to be focused on where client needs are and building custom solutions for them. Internally, that means organizationally and structurally for us building a lot of flexibility and resource management, because clients' needs are are also in flux,” she explained, citing tech as a particular sector where being reactive is necessary. Meanwhile, Wanda Pogue, chief strategy officer for VaynerMedia, explained that the integrated agency protected itself from the pressures that constant change brings through its flexible solution offer as either an agency of record or a consultancy to address specific needs. She also stressed the importance of ensuring that every client dollar should be spent wisely. “So in the way that we work, a lot of it is very focused on putting messages out, learning, optimizing, and then placing bigger bets on the things that are proven in the market to be working,” Pogue explained. Changing the view of value There is a growing shift across the industry from efficiency to effectiveness as marketers and their chief financial officers look to understand what their return on investment is from each dollar spent. Discussing the need for agencies to show “value” to their clients and justify their working relationship long term, McKibbin suggested that there has to be an appreciation that developing great creative to promote a brand can be a business multiplier. To ensure that is understood, the perception should shift to focus on results and the creation of market value. 2024 Will Push Ad Agencies to Pursue New Capabilities and Scale And with a growing reliance on technology and data coming into a creative and human industry, the panel discussed why gut instinct and lived experience remained key ingredients to developing brave ideas. “Data is incredibly valuable input,” said McKibbin. “It's a tool that we should harness and that we should use and we should listen to. And then layer on top of that our guts and our training and our cumulative years of experiences. As marketers, both things have to go together.”