The Martin Agency CEO Kristen Cavallo Explains Why She's Heavily Involved With Her Clients

The Martin Agency is Adweek's U.S. Agency of the Year for the second consecutive year, largely on the back of its creative work for clients like Axe, DoorDash, Geico and more. Creatives at the agency and clients say one of the agency's differentiators is CEO Kristen Cavallo—her involvement in selecting clients, but also her passion for the creative team and the work it produces. "She knows as much about the creative as she does about business. Maybe more," says Danny Robinson, The Martin Agency's chief creative officer. It's common for Cavallo to push clients on ideas from the creative team, says executive creative director Jerry Hoak, pointing to the "Scoop! There It Is!" ice cream as an idea Cavallo helped push to the finish line with Geico. And clients appreciate her hands-on approach. "She communicates directly and is supportive, as is [Robinson]," says Kevin Warren, UPS CMO. "You get that one-two punch who are very involved in the business and are a text or phone call away." Cavallo, who has led The Martin Agency since 2017, sat down with Adweek to discuss why she finds it so critical to be heavily involved with clients, how she vets them and what brands need to do to be better clients. This interview has been condensed and edited. Your creatives and clients say you're more hands-on than most agency CEOs they've worked with. What's your view on the CEO's role with clients?I talk to my clients all the time. I take five-mile walks every day to get off Zoom, and I call them randomly all the time, unscheduled. My job is to remind them of the plot of their brand's story so we don't lose it. I remind them what is possible because as the work starts, it's so easy to have things erode and to lose the plot. And it's my job to remind people we're not here just to make ads; we're here to make a difference. We're here to change something in someone's perception. Mike Hughes, our former chief creative officer, has a book, and he wrote "you can argue that the institution with the greatest influence on our culture today is not the federal government, not the church, but the corporation. And while that may be good or bad, what is not debatable is that $300 billion that is spent annually to project the voice of the corporation makes it a very powerful voice, and it must become a better voice." So we're trying to align with those brands that have something of worth to say and to make sure that we stay on that. Cavallo with The Martin Agency CCO Danny Robinson. What's the biggest obstacle you're dealing with in the pitch process?There are more great agencies than there are great clients. And because of that, we trample over each other to win the few good clients. We make ourselves seem interchangeable or disposable, and we're not. I don't think enough agencies are branding themselves toward their differences so that clients know that we're not interchangeable. It's my job to remind people we're not here just to make ads; we're here to make a difference.Kristen Cavallo, CEO, The Martin Agency When we choose to align with a client, the level of discernment that I exhibit in that choice is super important because there are 500 people at Martin that are relying on that choice. But they're equally relying on my choice when we walk from something. We are often known as much by what we walk away from as by what we choose. During the pitch process, what are reasons you might walk away?If we get invited into a review and the client is moving away from the type of work we admire, we won’t play. If we find that the client hasn't been honest with the incumbent, if the company doesn't really know that the review is happening or they weren't given a fair shot at trying to save it, we won't play. If the client doesn’t have something interesting to say or lacks the courage to start a conversation worth having, we won’t play. It’s just not the best use of our time. And time is one of our most precious assets. Why is it so important to say no?It's interesting because in the world of new business in the agency world, it's so dependent on the phone ringing and clients calling you that you forget as an agency that you have the right to say no. By saying no, you will actually attract more of what you want. You won't find yourself parched and desperate for water. You will find yourself having some control over your fate. What can brands do to improve the pitch process?They need to pitch us equally as we pitch them. They need to make room in the process for ambition sessions to tell us their real big wishes. We need to make time to discuss what is great work, show work you're proud of, but also show other work that you admire. I want them to tell me about a time that they took a brave idea and pushed it through their system and it came out the other side just as brave. I want to know what they believe, what they stand up for and where they're going to draw the line and what they're going to stand against. You have to believe that they have a voice that's worthy. By saying no, you will actually attract more of what you want. … You will find yourself having some control over your fate.Kristen Cavallo, CEO, The Martin Agency What's your message to brands and agencies on how the industry can get away from the so-called race to the bottom?You have to have some self-respect. You have to decide that you're worth fighting for and your people are worth fighting for. You have to decide that there is value in what you do. We study what we do way more than any client. Most clients will tell you that advertising is 10% of their job. CMOs are doing a lot of things. It's 100% of our job. There are clients that have bigger budgets for their legal teams to defend their brand than their ad budgets, which grow their brand and grow their influence. When clients hire an agency, they need to be searching for agencies who have an informed opinion on the way brands grow and how the brand works. They need to give them a seat at the table, respect them and let them do their job.