Inside the rise of agency chief marketing and brand officers

Wanted: “Pure hunter/cold caller/door knocker, fielder of RFPs, forager of organic growth from existing client relationships, pitch organizer, marketing communications and agency branding–or some combination of these.” That’s a pseudo job listing that Tony Stanol, president of global recruiter Sarasota, said describes the role of one of the fastest-growing agency jobs: the chief marketing officer. Super Bowl commercials Tracking the latest brand and agency plans Enter here “It’s one of the functions that’s most in demand,” said Stanol, who has placed a number of CMOs at mid-sized agencies over the past couple of years. “Some years ago these responsibilities fell on the executive team part-time nights and weekends,” he said, but in today’s world that is not enough. Also read: How agencies are marketing themselves “The CMO role is increasingly important because the agency landscape is more competitive than ever,” said Saatchi & Saatchi CMO Nicole Souza. “There is a constant need to have an executive at the helm of the agency's marketing efforts in order to remain competitive.” Holistic picture Recent appointments include Wieden+Kennedy naming Rebecca Groff, former global director of communications and public relations, to become its first CMO last April; Johannes Leonardo hiring John McCarthy as its first CMO in January; and TBWA appointing Ben Myers as its first North American CMO last March. Mojo Supermarket and Goodby Silverstein & Partners also hired their first chief growth officers this year. “The need for agencies to clearly showcase what they do, how they think and the value they bring is greater than ever before,” said Elle McCarthy, former VP of global brand for EA Sports, who is now a fractional marketing executive for both agencies and brands. That requires presenting a holistic picture of the agency and its value to brand prospects rather than relying on earlier work, or emailing a “creds deck” [portfolio of work] to them, McCarthy added. “The ask [from clients] is broader,” McCarthy said, but often agencies fall into the trap of showcasing the Super Bowl spot they did the year before. “I’m always like, ‘What are you doing the rest of the time? What does your work really look like?’” Some shops are going further by appointing chief brand officers. Martin Agency’s chief strategy officer Elizabeth Paul recently transitioned to that title, which is a first for the agency. Paul said she will be leading business development, brand communications, working with the talent and culture team and more, while still doing some strategy work for clients as needed. Paul will be focused on making sure the agency’s philosophy spreads into its culture. An example of this is a fashion show that was done internally, where employees were encouraged to make their own clothing. Paul is also working on Martin’s brand and social playbook, and an ongoing project to find a way to get more diverse employees into the advertising workforce. More news: Agencies struggle to train and retain junior-level staff It’s about “making sure we don’t sway away from our North Star as the agency grows and evolves,” Paul said. Paul noted that her role is not just sharpening perceptions about the agency but also dispelling false ones. She cited as an example a recent experience with an RFP. The agency didn’t get invited to a review because a consultant didn’t think Martin was global enough, when in fact more than 30% of the agency’s work is tied to global business. After seeing that feedback, Martin created a new global credentials deck. “That would be an example of needing to do a better job of telling the global side of our story,” Paul said. “Then once we do that those opportunities come.” McCarthy said some of the best CMOs she’s worked with came from a strategy background because “they’re very relationship-focused in their work.” Where the CMO’s role is “most powerful is when it’s a true relationship-building role, which takes a lot of time and a certain personality,” she said. The power of testimonials Good marketing for an agency should involve some sort of client testimonial, which can serve as a super-charged influencer partnership if done right, she said. “Client testimonials are like working with influencers. Your success is always going to sound better when it’s spoken about by someone else, and who you didn’t pay but they’ve actually paid you.” That’s an area TBWA’s Myers, who came from an account management background, has built since he became CMO for the network’s North American offices. At the Association of National Advertisers’ Masters of Marketing Conference in October, he said he and his communications team got client Hilton to showcase some of the work the agency has done for the company as well as discuss its brand positioning of being a “disruptor.” “The CMO of Hilton, one of the main speakers, was up on stage and he literally took the audience through our disruption roadmap and highlighted us as partners,” Myers said, noting it as a win for him and the communications team. “That’s come from us trying to find high-impact client advocacy moments.” ANA news: 6 takeaways from the largest CMO event of 2023 Meers’ role has also been about helping drive a more consistent brand narrative for TBWA across its North American offices while still ensuring the individual offices “are able to maintain their own personality, their own secret sauce.” He said everyone will see “disruption at the center of that narrative” in any place TBWA shows up including across social channels. Christine Prins joined independent agency 22Squared as its CMO last February, and she previously held that role for Saatchi & Saatchi New York for almost eight years. While there, she worked to turn around the perception that the Publicis agency was a stodgy, traditional shop that churned out boring ads into one that delivered standout, award-winning campaigns including its “It’s a Tide Ad” Super Bowl spots for Procter & Gamble. Prins has seen an evolution of the agency CEO role to one more focused on business development. “I always think it’s important for agencies to have a focus on growth, but It’s really important, perhaps now more than ever. You have fewer and smaller pitches with more competitive results. You have to be thoughtful about the opportunities you want to pursue,” Prins said. Multifaceted role Emily Doskow, who has been CMO of Leo Burnett since 2021, wears many hats. “My day-to-day looks like 5 million meetings back to back in 30-minute increments,” Doskow said. “It’s still a lot of pitching,” she said. “A lot of prospecting, early-stage work to try to track what's happening in the market; what's happening with our competitors; what's happening with brands, movements, leadership on the client side; where a lot of our clients have moved to—they shuffle around just as much as we do; [planning] six months or a year out where we see opportunities, so that's anything from our open categories where we don't have clients, to what we want to be known for; what kind of work we as an agency want to do, and do we have the talent, the skillset to do it?” “In the CMO role, you really add the total picture of defining the reputation of the agency; defining the agency's position, story and narrative,” she said. Burnett’s narrative, she said, is “populist creativity, big mass American brands, and global on occasion. The brands we build [are] for the masses; for the fabric of culture.” Refining that brand narrative and then going after the opportunities that make sense within that context, she said, resulted in the agency last year winning all 11 of the clients it pitched including Jim Beam. “It was a 100% conversion rate,” Doskow said. “That doesn’t happen.” The rise of brand platforms Another way agencies and their CMOs are trying to differentiate their agencies from rivals is through brand platforms—despite the fact that it can pigeonhole an agency. “Agencies articulate a philosophy, but then when they go into a pitch, if they're afraid that philosophy will alienate, the first thing the temptation to do is to pull it back or water it down,” said Paul, whose shop’s mantra is “We fight invisibility.” But Paul believes backing off on that philosophy is a mistake. “My observation is that a good positioning as a strategist should attract the right type of partners and should repel the wrong type of partners. Not because they're bad, but just because they're not yours.” Mischief operates under the mantra of “creating work that makes a stir,” said its head of development, Oliver McAteer. “We believe the riskiest thing a brand can do is be ignorable. Everything ladders back up to that mission and all the external and internal communications have to rally around that line.” Fitzco, an Atlanta agency with more than 100 employees, recently created a new process of working and pitching called “Unleashing Energy,” meant to show clients how the agency will tackle challenges. “We wanted to come up with a process that wasn't overly complicated,” CEO Evan Levy, noting that since adopting the process the agency’s win rate has “markedly improved.” Joan Creative has its own proprietary process called the “growth wheel,” a system involving a circle divided into 10 segments, five of which look at how to sustain long-term growth for a brand, while the other five include making the brand culturally relevant. The power of distinction Steve Boehler, founder of Mercer Island Group, said that some agencies have held strong platforms for many years, such as McCann’s “Truth Well Told” and Edelman’s trust positioning. "It’s distinctive and is brought to life every day of the year,” Boehler said. “They have the Edelman Trust Institute, their annual Trust Barometer Research with a big launch, ‘trust’ podcasts and blogs throughout the year, white papers, reports, downloadable content and industry and geography specific presentations and roundtables.” Clear distinctions are more important than ever, given the recent waves of agency megamergers, said Boehler. “I still can’t reconcile how poorly the holding companies have managed some immense properties—Y&R, JWT, Wunderman, McGarryBowen, Kirshenbaum. The list goes on and on. These brands really stood for something compelling once upon a time, and they eventually became generic versions of big agencies. It’s a crying shame that the agencies we count on to brand great businesses can’t manage their own brands.”

Inside the rise of agency chief marketing and brand officers

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