How Remote Work May Forever Change Co-Located Agencies

The switch to remote work at the beginning of the pandemic was a challenge for everyone, but for Wunderman Thompson's co-located Best Buy team, the challenge was amplified. As an agency team working within the brand, it couldn't access basic tools like Best Buy's Microsoft Teams environment because of the client's security protocol. "We don't work in the same Teams environment, so immediately, all of those great collaboration points came slamming to a halt," said EJ McNulty, executive creative director at Wunderman Thompson Midwest, adding that even though they had access to their physical spaces, initially they "didn't have access to each other's digital spaces, and that was problem one that hit us really hard." This wasn't a problem before the pandemic. If the Wunderman Thompson team needed to collaborate with clients, they'd just find them in the office. Making Human Connections Is Key to Keeping Remote Employees Engaged But with the arrival of the pandemic and remote work, co-location became impossible, creating challenges for previously co-located teams and raising questions about the future of the model. Some challenges persisted into this year. Planning for this year's holiday campaigns, which started in March, was less efficient and fluid than in prior years, McNulty said. Now, with many companies crafting return-to-office policies, the Wunderman Thompson team must abide by the policies at both WPP and at Best Buy. "When you're co-located on Best Buy's facilities, you have to abide by theirs, and you also have to abide by yours. And they are not always the exact same," he said. The co-located team has returned to the Best Buy office on an ad hoc basis, but is not co-located full time. "We have not gone yet, nor can I say that there's an official date in which we plan on going back," said McNulty. “Process and team work between groups overcame the technical issues to a degree. Utilizing collaboration technology such as Miro boards improved workflows. Ultimately a new normal was achieved," he added. "However, technology can't replace in-person collaboration for some things that we do, especially around campaign creation, something that our teams and clients really want to get back to.” Despite the initial challenges, the Best Buy and Wunderman Thompson teams' relationship is thriving. In addition to their creative work, they continue to collaborate on issues that spring up, such as vaccination policies. On-site agency teams, forever changed Some agencies have operated these dedicated units for years. Oliver, which designs bespoke in-house agencies, was founded in 2004. Firewood, now folded into Media.Monks, launched in 2010. In 2016 MRM launched MRM Inside, and in 2018 Wunderman Thompson created its dedicated unit. Before the pandemic, MRM Inside's teams usually co-located with clients five days a week. But since the pandemic, none have returned to client offices. Kate MacNevin, global chairwoman and CEO at MRM says that MRM Inside's approximately 350 employees are still embedded with clients, even though they are not currently sharing office space. MacNevin cited growth from MRM Inside during the pandemic, spurred by an in-sourcing surge that MRM Inside is supporting. Other agencies with similar models, like Oliver and Media.Monks, also say business grew during the pandemic. Oliver works with clients like West Jet, Marriott, 3M, Unilever and Adidas to design and build in-house agencies staffed by its employees. Kristi VandenBosch, president at Oliver, says that more clients changed their approach to in-housing, and some have disbanded their offices. "It turned out it wasn't necessarily about the shared roof so much as it was about the shared purpose, and dedication to the business that had come from sitting inside them," she said. Media.Monks global chief embedded solutions officer Warren Chase said, "Embedded doesn't necessarily mean just co-location. There are many different manifestations of how an embedded team can work with a client. Being located with the client or in the client's space is just one of them." The big difference between a traditional team and an embedded team is that embedded teams are entrenched so much in the client's business that they operate as an extension of that team. Media.Monks San Francisco managing director Maridette de Guzman says that the embedded distinction usually means the team uses a client email address and has access to the client's scheduling, files and folders that allow for more connectivity, and this is true even in a remote environment. "Through the pandemic we found ways to still continue that connection, to still be really entrenched in their business," Guzman said. MRM's MacNevin expects future co-located models to be more flexible, and that hybrid or remote work will become an industry standard. "The definition of what it means to be on-site will be forever changed," she said. It's already changed the way co-located agencies are staffing accounts. More remote talent Anthony Jennings, a senior user experience researcher joined MRM Inside's embedded Cisco team last year. Jennings says some remote workers were staffed on the Cisco account even before the pandemic, but that the team now includes many more workers. Many, like Jennings, live far from Cisco offices and will not return to co-locate once the client reopens its doors. "As the team was being assembled and constructed, the fear of taking from elements outside of [the client's] area kind of evaporated due to need. I think the team kind of evolved into what it is now as opposed to what it may have been," Jennings said. Even though he never co-located with the client, Jennings uses a Cisco email address. Before joining the embedded Cisco team, Jennings said he'd never had an embedded email or the ability for a client to reach him directly. Now he communicates primarily in Cisco's WebEx environment and not in MRM's Teams. VandenBosch says that before the pandemic, hiring remote talent for bespoke teams was a rarity and that Oliver's teams are focused on retaining a close relationship with the client. "It did it arguably so well that clients have become much more receptive to the idea that it is about the talent, and people, and the notion of feeling embedded, then it is about the actual physical co-location," she said. P&G’s New Dedicated Agency Will Bring Together Talent From Agencies at Competing Holding Companies

The Future of Agencies

How Remote Work May Forever Change the Co-Located Agency Model

Wunderman Thompson, MRM Inside and others are redefining the model

Olivia Morley

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Olivia Morley