What Did We Learn from Q3 2026 Holdco Earnings Calls?
Earnings calls offer a special, brief glimpse into a public company. But remember, an earnings call is not a news event. It’s an ad. The audience isn’t clients or employees. It’s the money markets: the analysts, fund managers and shareholders who decide what a holding company’s stock is worth. Every word in the prepared remarks […]
The Agency AI Arms Race Isn’t an Arms Race. It’s a Subscription.
Every holding company is telling clients they are investing hundreds of millions in AI. WPP: $400 million. Publicis: $326 million over three years, and $15.7 billion over a decade. Havas: $110 million a year. Dentsu: roughly $51 million per year. Big numbers. Confident numbers. Numbers designed to make an independent agency feel outgunned. So we […]
Your Agency Fee Needs a Business Case, Not Just a Spreadsheet
Your team has spent weeks explaining how it can help the client. You have discussed the business challenge, developed a strategy, and shown how the work could make a difference. Then it is time to talk about money. The next thing the client receives is a spreadsheet.Titles, hours, rates, and a total. The business argument […]
Chemistry Starts Before the Meeting
Before a potential client meets your team in person, your proposal and your interactions may have already introduced your agency. The key question is whether your team was introduced as collection of names and resumes or a group of people the client can imagine working with? An account leader’s awards, previous employers, and years of […]
Why Staying Independent Often Means Joining Forces
It’s not for one primary reason. A complex stew of opportunity and necessity is driving agency mergers. The market is creating opportunity and a range of forces offer pragmatic solutions: a chance to win more business, a need to compete differently, owners looking to realize value, and investors willing to finance the deal. How do […]
Your Best Case Study May Be the Wrong One
You have a case study everyone at the agency loves. The client is famous, the work is beautiful, and the results give your team plenty to be proud of. It appears in almost every new business presentation. Someone suggests leaving it out, and the room gets uncomfortable. After all, it is your best work. Why […]
Agency Leaders: Stop Rescuing Your Pitch Team
You’re a senior agency leader and your agency is pitching a prospective client. Imagine your account lead answering a prospect’s question. The answer is good, but you know you could make it better. You jump in with a clarification. Then you add some context, offer another example, and answer the follow-up yourself. You are trying […]
The solution to Martech problems is not more Martech
The companies making the most money per employee use less programmatic technology than the ones losing to them. Every industry studied. No exceptions. Frans Riemersma of Martech Tribe analyzed 988 real-world tech stacks across 49 martech categories. He compared the top 30% of companies by revenue per employee with everyone else. Programmatic produced the most […]
Your Agency Doesn’t Need a Better Pitch. It Needs a Better Insight.
A better-looking pitch deck cannot fix a pitch that fails to solve the prospect’s problem. Before you polish the next pitch, ask whether your strategic insights have actually changed the way you understand the client’s challenge. Suppose a prospect says, “We need more leads.” Your team could immediately begin discussing paid search, landing pages, content […]
Agency “Outcomes” Claims: Strategic Agency North Star, or BS?
Outcomes are all the rage. And they should be. C-Suites, boards and owners demand them. And marketers are expected to deliver them. Marketing investments are precious and strong results are necessary. Agencies everywhere have gotten the message! Many are reacting by talking about outcomes and making a wide range of claims. That is a very […]