How our Media Roundtables Transformed Our Agency Strategy
Spoiler alert: it’s all about collaboration.
When I was a kid, my dad was a publisher’s rep calling on ad agencies across the Midwest. One unforgettable summer, I tagged along with him on agency visits. Watching him work—creating insights and ideas seemingly out of thin air—was mesmerizing. That summer left such a deep impression on me that it practically wrote the script for my own journey into advertising. Now, 35 years later, I’ve realized his real secret wasn’t magic—it was collaboration.
Dad knew instinctively that big ideas rarely come from isolation. They grow in the rich soil of partnership, openness, and mutual respect. Those foundational lessons shaped how I think about advertising, leadership, and running an agency.
Why Ad Agency Collaboration Beats Client Gatekeeping
Too many ad agencies guard their clients like prized possessions, driven by fear of losing control. The industry’s unwritten rule has long been to keep competitors and partners at arm’s length, locking away clients behind walls of exclusivity and gatekeeping. But that approach has never felt right to me.
We’ve built our agency around something different—a stakeholder model rooted in conscious capitalism. The idea is simple: collaboration leads to better solutions. Everyone in our ecosystem—clients, media partners, employees—benefits when we work openly and together.
Here’s the truth: these aren’t just our clients. They belong to the ecosystem we’re part of. When we invite others to the table, we don’t dilute our strength—we amplify it. Real success isn’t about hoarding relationships; it’s about cultivating them.
