With its acquisition of MediaLink, talent agency UTA is banking that the advisory led by the uber-connected Michael Kassan will bolster its marketing arm by opening new doors to big-spending chief marketing officers. But access doesn’t always guarantee performance—and the talent agency business has a history of failing to deliver on lofty promises of growing marketing offerings.

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​​UTA—which paid $125 million to acquire MediaLink from Cannes Lions-owner Ascential—sees the arrangement as giving new heft to its appeal to brands that must constantly search for new ways to reach consumers as traditional advertising becomes less relevant in the ad-skipping and streaming age. Kassan, MediaLink's CEO, becomes a partner in UTA as part of the deal. And UTA Marketing, which has housed the talent firm’s brand work, will become part of a MediaLink division called UTA Entertainment & Culture Marketing that will “work at the intersection of brands, marketing and the creative community,” the company stated.

“In a world of streaming and content being delivered in so many different ways you need to be ahead of that curve and how brands are going to live,” Kassan said in an interview. “Brands are learning how to live in a subscription world, and we are sitting in the center of that.”

“With streaming, marketers are finding it harder and harder to play against premium content,” said Jeremy Zimmer, CEO of UTA.

The role of the combined company, Zimmer added, will be not just to connect marketers to its 3,500-strong roster of talent in the fields of acting, sports, music, digital influencers and e-sports, but to advise them “how to become an important part of the storytelling” in those worlds. “We can be a guide to that,” he said, speaking alongside Kassan in the joint interview.

Agency disintermediation

That has largely been the responsibility of ad agencies, and so a big consideration is whether UTA Marketing will cut traditional ad agencies from the equation, at least partially. Julian Jacobs, co-head of UTA Marketing, suggested as much during a recent interview on a podcast produced by Advertising Week: “Media agencies want to sell more media, creative agencies want to sell more creative content. They make more money when those things are churning. We don't really have that here. We are focused on finding the best ideas to help our client stand out and break through.” 

“Marketers that we talk to want to have a relationship with the producer of that show they are buying media around,” Jacobs said on the podcast. “They want to have a relationship with that artist that they are partnering with to create whatever it is they may be creating.” 

Among the talent on UTA’s roster are actors including Chris Pratt, Will Ferrell, Frances McDormand, Seth Rogan, Owen Wilson and Harrison Ford. Zimmer said the agency also represents the creators of shows like “Ted Lasso,” “Succession,” “White Lotus,” “The Sopranos,” “Six Feet Under” and more, as well as sports stars like LeBron James, music artists Bad Bunny and Post Malone as well as digital influencers and esports players.

The UTA/MediaLink combo can also help marketers create NFTs, one of the biggest marketing trends of the year. Brands have increasingly put to market non-fungible tokens designed by artists in a move to gain notice. On the Advertising Week podcast, David Anderson, who co-heads of UTA Marketing, referenced UTA’s fine arts practice that includes an artist gallery space in Beverly Hills and a soon-to-be-opened one in Atlanta. “As NFTs have emerged, that is an incredible opportunity for our artists …  to reimagine their business,” he said, adding that UTA has a “front-row seat in all of those areas.”

UTA says that given today’s burgeoning creator economy there is a heightened need to help brands navigate an increasingly bewildering space. The rise in creators has led to a host of celebrities that populate the rosters of talent agencies diving into the world of advertising—the most high-profile perhaps is Ryan Reynolds, whose Maximum Effort agency was recently bought by MNTN. “Talent without an idea is nothing,” said an agency executive at a large holding company, “unless Ryan Reynolds brings it into the room.”

Unnecessary middlemen

But critics of the model say that the talent agencies themselves are the unnecessary middlemen. One media executive at a major advertiser said the marketer prefers to work directly with the producers of shows on brand integrations. “As soon as you bring in a talent agency it no longer becomes a value-for-value exchange, it becomes about cash,” said this person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. 

“At the end of the day, the producers and the writers are the ones in charge of the show. The talent agencies, they are not as ingrained with your brand, they are not dedicated, they don’t know your brand’s DNA, and they are not as engrained with the show—so you have a middleman,” the person added. “It’s always easier to have direct conversations and cut people out.”

An executive at an ad agency echoed that sentiment, saying, “with influencers being all the rage, brands seem more focused on going direct to them. And there are data-driven tools that help you connect directly.”

‘Tedious turn’

One longtime agency executive remained unimpressed with the MedialLink/UTA combination, calling it “another tedious turn in Madison & Vine,” referring to a term coined to describe the intersection of celebrity talent with advertising agencies. He scoffed that Kassan “is UTA’s head of new business.”

Despite the fact that he has almost every top CMO on speed dial, Kassan said the deal is not just about connections but strategy and execution. And he says it cuts both ways. “I have thought of agency business as representing talent, but the talent they represent are also brands, much like Dove soap. They have to nurture and build their brand and make sure you don’t put that brand in the wrong place and in the right light. That is our gigantic advantage here. Are we going to start doing commercial creation and compete with Leo Burnett? No, that is not on the horizon, but there is an opportunity in a world of streaming and so many different considerations to advise how marketers are going to pursue that link with entertainment.”

Another media executive at a major marketer criticized the deal for another reason: “​​The knock on MediaLink on their consulting practice (especially with agency reviews and other types of capability building) has been that they represent the clients, the agencies as well as the publishers/tech and you worry about their ability to remain neutral. This sale isn’t going to change that concern.”

When asked for comment, Kassan said MediaLink had no intention of abandoning those other businesses, saying it was complementary and would give brands “more opportunities for growth and advancement.” And despite the fact that it is no longer owned by Ascential, MediaLink has cut a long-term deal with the company to continue doing business with the Cannes Lions, including operating its MediaLink beach.

Agency interlopers

Hollywood talent agencies have set out to disintermediate ad agencies for decades. In the early 1990s, CAA famously signed on with Coca-Cola to essentially act as “worldwide communications and marketing consultant.”

The collaboration yielded a suite of nearly 30 commercials that introduced the world to its animated polar bears with the tagline, “Always Coca-Cola.” At the time, the arrangement was perceived not just as a threat to Coke’s agency, then called McCann-Erickson, but to the industry as a whole. “If ad agencies lose their hegemony over the ad-making process and are forced to share their control of the idea-generation business with interlopers like CAA, it could threaten the careers of thousands of creative executives, in turn undermining the stability of the agencies for which they work,” wrote the New York Times in 1993.

But the Coke-CAA relationship dissolved after just four years and McCann maintained a stronghold on Coke work for years to come, only to be reignited again when the soda giant returned to the talent agency in 2000. That led to entertainment tie-ups such as Coke’s well-documented solo sponsorship of “American Idol,” as well as the birth of a proper marketing division with CAA. 

CAA Marketing division re-emerged as a true competitor amongst the agency set in the early 2010s with its pop culture and branded content successes for Chipotle, which led to multiple Grand Prix at Cannes. It also boasted leadership of seasoned ad industry vets such as Jae Goodman, Jesse Coulter, David Messinger and Lenny Stern. But in 2017, CAA gave up control of the marketing arm when Stagwell Group acquired the division, which went on to rebrand as Observatory, operating under the leadership of Goodman. Stagwell initially acquired a majority stake in the company from CAA but now has 100% ownership.

'Old-fashioned view'

Other more recent moves by talent agencies to get closer to marketers also did not pan out as intended. In 2013, talent agency giant William Morris Endeavor took a financial stake in creative agency darling Droga5 in a deal estimated at $225 million. But Droga in 2019 severed its relationship with WME when it was acquired by Accenture Interactive.

One longtime agency executive said that ad agency/talent agency deals can be rocky because their priorities are not aligned. “The talent agencies are less interested in, say, AT&T’s long-term strategy, they just want 10% of the deal,” he said. “Ad agencies care about the long-term business objectives of their clients.”

Responded Zimmer: “That’s a very old-fashioned view of the world and anyone who spends a little time understanding the talent agency today knows we are diversified and involved in multiple relationships, streams of income looking to more platforms. We are able to help anyone who wants to accomplish anything in the media business— we can provide insights, access and activation.”

”If you are looking to commission—if you are in the talent business for that—well that is not the agency of today. It’s no different than the creative agencies we work with on a very direct basis,” said Kassan. “Agencies are not about making expensive commercials, they are about bringing brands the right strategy and advice, and if that’s something that makes us competitive to them, so be it. Strategy is not a dime a dozen. The opportunity [UTA and Medialink] has to bring together an understanding of brands and talent is a universal selling proposition.”

Can it work?

But whether MediaLink and UTA can win over brands remains an open question.

"I see this as a really good complement within the creative agency ecosystem," said Jae Goodman, the founder and CEO of Observatory and a former CEO of CAA Marketing. "I already call Michael Kassan for advice. This would make me as likely or more likely to call him for insight. I deal with UTA all the time, and there's one more person at UTA who actually understands how the marketing ecosystem works."

"The thing that makes this interesting versus past iterations for me is the timing in which it's happening," said Todd Hunter, a former chief creative officer at Observatory who is now co-founder and chief brand officer of Offfield. He added: "We have to do something different. And what could be interesting is maybe this is the time where, with this kind of marriage of media entertainment, Madison Avenue could finally be coming to have its moment.”

See Ad Age's 2021 Marketers of the Year here.

“So far it hasn’t worked,” said Avi Dan, founder and CEO of agency search consultancy Avidan Strategies, about talent and ad agency combinations. “But that doesn’t mean it isn’t a good idea. And it doesn’t mean that it won’t work at some point.”

"We are building a bridge [between talent and marketers] with one of the ultimate leaders and most well-regarded strategic thinkers in the marketing world," said Zimmer. "If we can’t figure it out with Michael Kassan, then nobody can figure it out.”

Contributing: Ann-Christine Diaz