Why McGarrah Jessee hired its first chief technology officer

McGarrah Jessee has hired Bill Urciuoli as its first chief technology officer, a move designed to help the Austin, Texas-based independent agency address the steady convergence of media, data and technology in the industry. Urciuoli, formerly senior VP at WPP’s performance media shop Eicoff, aims to bolster McGarrah Jessee’s media and data chops while tying them closer together with creative capabilities. He will develop custom tools and a data operating system, and help the agency further dabble in personalized content at scale, a growing priority for marketers. McGarrah Jessee has a vision for the agency it “wants to be over the next three, five and 10 years,” said Urciuoli. Before Urciuoli was hired, McGarrah Jessee was searching for a chief media officer, but the agency eventually decided to broaden the role’s remit and title to find someone with expertise in areas such as AI and automation—a move that reflects where the industry is headed, its executives said. “If you look at media really closely, so much of the opportunity is around technology,” Britton Upham, CEO of McGarrah Jessee, said in an interview. McGarrah Jessee has been full-service since 1996, but the agency is now increasing its focus on media and data to better serve clients and wrangle some smaller business away from the industry’s ad giants. “The holding companies have sort of usurped the media business. It’s very intimidating for a lot of the indies to get into that space,” said Upham, who oversees roughly 100 employees at the agency. “We have to evolve.” Also: Inside the creativity debate—how the rise of media and tech is redefining success In hiring Urciuoli and scaling the business, McGarrah Jessee aims to position itself in what it describes as a “Goldilocks zone,” a space nestled in between holding companies and smaller shops that can’t often provide integration, with the offer of more robust services without sacrificing its independence. That’s similar to the “scale and soul” proposition touted by BarkleyOKRP, which is carving out a niche as “a big indie” despite its majority equity investment from Keystone Capital. One of McGarrah Jessee’s newest and largest clients, retailer Academy Sports + Outdoors, has “a little bit over $100 million in media spend,” Upham said. In terms of integrated assignments, the agency looks at “$200 million in revenue or higher as clients are ready to play with decent budgets,” he added. “They’re maturing, and they’re trying to figure out how to take their core and expand that to a much larger audience,” Upham said of such companies. “They always struggle in that moment, and we’re here for that.” Along with Academy Sports + Outdoors, McGarrah Jessee also has agency-of-record assignments with Whataburger and Frost Bank, both of which have spanned more than 20 years, the agency stated. Sign up for Ad Age newsletters

Why McGarrah Jessee hired its first chief technology officer

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