Why major brands are hiring agencies on LinkedIn—and dividing the industry

When a handful of small brands turned to LinkedIn to search for new agencies late last year, some industry insiders dismissed it as a fad not likely to take off with large marketers. Famous last words. In the past few weeks, VF Corporation’s The North Face and Nike’s Jordan, two brands housed by massive publicly traded companies, hopped on the trend. Marketing executives at the companies posted to LinkedIn their desire to hire new agency partners and encouraged shops to reach out—which they did in droves. See all of Ad Age’s 2025 Agency A-List winners here The North Face and Jordan follow brands including MrBeast’s Feastables and Heineken’s Beyond Beer, which launched agency searches late last year via the social platform most commonly used for professional networking, accelerating what some industry executives see as a shift in how brands form partnerships with shops. The tactic is gathering a mixed bag of reactions from executives in the industry, including agency leaders and consultants. Some argue this is not an effective way to find the right partner and risks wasting the time of everyone involved, while others tout it as innovative and a possible way to save money. “Folks always overreact when the status quo is challenged,” said Mitchell Caplan, a marketing operations and agency relationship management consultant at business transformation firm Chameleon Collective, who called the negative backlash “shortsighted.” Feelings aside, the practice is indicative of a changing landscape in which brand marketers looking to hire different types of agencies are seeking alternative ways to make those connections rather than the traditional route of costly, time-consuming consultant-led pitches. Agency Review Tracker Stay up to date with the latest account reviews Click here Backlash to ‘open cattle-call format’ Natalie Brooks, a senior manager of digital production at The North Face, originally posted on LinkedIn an announcement for a “nationwide RFP” to hire “a studio for our digital e-commerce creative and operational needs.” The post has since been edited to reflect that the RFP was closed and that the brand “will not be able to respond to all messages and requests, but the team will vet partners and reach out accordingly.” Maddie Grandbois, a freelance creative director for The North Face, made a corresponding announcement in a post that has been edited similarly. Combined, the posts garnered more than 1,200 comments. Benjamin Kaplan, a senior creative director, global brand creative, Jordan Brand, also recently said in a LinkedIn post that he was seeking creative agencies specializing in seasonal retail storytelling, retail and brand activations and events. The post drummed up 962 comments before it was seemingly taken down. Nike declined to comment on the LinkedIn post and The North Face did not return requests for comment. Ad Age reached out to Brooks, Grandbois and Kaplan but did not receive responses. LinkedIn also declined to comment. The North Face post in particular seemed to ruffle some feathers in the industry, with certain consultants and agency executives coming out to criticize these LinkedIn agency searches broadly. Sunday Dinner Founder Lindsey Slaby questioned what she called “the open cattle-call format” in a comment on Grandbois’ LinkedIn post for The North Face. “TNF has historically selected partners who match its high creative standards—this approach feels like a departure,” Slaby wrote. “Without structured criteria, the result is a flood of responses where many firms likely don’t understand the ask.” Slaby, who told Ad Age she stands by the message she shared on LinkedIn, also added in her comment that these types of callouts have attracted a slew of responses from agencies that may not necessarily be fit for the job. Consultants such as Slaby are hired to evaluate agencies’ fitness for a particular task before making recommendations to brands. “It also forces agencies to position themselves broadly—without the necessary details—diluting both their credibility and TNF’s ability to evaluate them meaningfully,” she wrote. “This is the process agencies frequently criticize—one that shifts the burden onto them, leading to wasted time, misalignment and frustration. … If the goal is to find the right partner efficiently, this method seems counterproductive.” Also read: How agencies can become valued brand partners Some agency executives told Ad Age they wouldn’t respond to such requests. Jonathan Balck, co-founder and managing director of independent creative shop Colossus, said the tactic risks commoditizing creativity, which has recently become a hot-button topic, because it creates an auction-style process that feels entirely transactional. “All of a sudden you’re delivering ideas to a client you’ve never met just to get in the door,” Balck said. “I don’t necessarily blame these agencies that are replying. I get it. It’s not a criticism of them. It’s more like, ‘Is this where we are?’” Matthew Kasindorf, senior VP of the business intelligence and insight group for the 4A’s, said picking the right agency partner should never be “transactional, but rather focused on partnership, chemistry and great work product.” “A key principle for running a great agency review is to have a well-curated selection of agencies that have the necessary credentials interested in the account,” Kasindorf said. “That’s not going to happen with a social media announcement.” John Geletka, founder and chief experience officer of independent shop Geletka+, said an RFP in general “slows down the work and fast-tracks a vendor relationship,” and said these searches on LinkedIn seem like a waste of time for agencies. “Launching an RFP on LinkedIn says to the world: ‘We don’t know what we want as a brand, who we want to work with or why we want to work with them.’ On the surface, it looks innocent—open, fair, democratic,” Geletka said. “From our perspective, this is just a PR stunt disguised as a search for ideas. It’s a lazy tactic, and good agencies should ignore it.” The case for doing a LinkedIn agency search Bryan Waddell, acting CMO and VP of brand marketing at Feastables, said he was taken aback by the negative backlash he saw circulating social media following The North Face’s LinkedIn post. Waddell—a former marketer at Nestlé for six years, most recently as a senior brand marketing manager for Hot Pockets—was one of the pioneers of this practice when he posted a call out to potential new agency partners late last year. “We are not running an RFP, instead my DMs and inbox are open for the next 45 days to hear from you,” he had written in the LinkedIn post, which garnered nearly 500 likes and more than 150 comments in one week. As an executive at Feastables, a small snack brand launched by YouTuber MrBeast, Waddell said he didn’t have the resources to run a consultant-led pitch like he did when he worked at Nestlé. Reviews cost over $1 million for marketers and agencies involved, according to a 2023 study by Advertiser Perceptions commissioned by the Association of National Advertisers and 4A’s. The high cost of pitching, as well as the often several months it takes to undergo the process, is likely causing some brands to seek alternatives in hiring agency partners. Meanwhile, major brands including Starbucks and MassMutual recently skipped formal reviews, opting instead for agencies where their marketers had existing relationships. The industry has always been based on relationships, so those examples may not be as unique as LinkedIn agency searches, but they still show that brands are increasingly using alternative tactics to formal reviews. These examples are all “proof points that things are changing and they have to,” Waddell said. For him, he said the goal of the LinkedIn call out he launched was to create a Rolodex of potential agency partners that could be a fit for an immediate project or one down the road. And he said Feastables was successful in identifying those partners. “Any crack in the door is an opportunity,” Waddell said. “It was all positive. To see people saying The North Face is not going to get what they’re looking for; that’s an assumption. It’s a bummer to see the negativity surrounding it.” Chameleon Collective’s Caplan said that The North Face would be successful whether it finds the right agency partner through LinkedIn or not. Even “if it’s a total failure" in identifying the right partners, the brand “also achieved their objective” in getting a list of shops that are not good fits for the company, he argued, so “why the hell not try?” Caplan also posted his thoughts to LinkedIn on why The North Face’s decision to shop for an agency on the social media platform was actually “smart.” He pointed out in the post that the original ask by the brand was for an agency that would help it optimize its marketing efforts on LinkedIn. “So, what better way than an ad on the very platform they need help with?” Caplan wrote, noting that there are AI tools that can help brand marketers sort through the number of responses. Become an All Access subscriber Get access to exclusive resources including Leading National Advertisers, World’s Largest Advertisers, Agency Report, Agency Review Tracker and TV Pricing Report. Click here Is this a lasting trend? Caplan told Ad Age that there will always be a need for consultants, but with the economy likely headed for a decline, brands will continue to try to find ways to save time and money and that could mean skirting more formal reviews and search processes. Whether that leads to an uptick in LinkedIn agency searches, Caplan said it’s too early to tell. Balck said he has seen an increasing number of LinkedIn agency searches, but he doesn’t imagine they could ever replace consultant-led pitches. “We are in an oversupplied industry, oversupplied with agency brands,” he said, “The consultants do matchmaking; they provide a service. There can’t be 350 agencies or creative shops that are right for [a] project. There just aren’t,” said Balck. Slaby told Ad Age previously that she didn’t think the trend would take off with larger marketers because “hiring an agency is complex and not a crowd-sourced moment,” adding that she sticks by that sentiment even after the most recent examples. But not everyone sees it that way. “I think it’s more than a trend, it’s a dynamic shift,” Waddell said. “Just because something’s changed doesn’t mean it’s unethical. Opening the front door differently is not a bad thing. The precious, perfect way of doing things is long gone.”

Why major brands are hiring agencies on LinkedIn—and dividing the industry

Featured Stories