To drive innovation, brands rethink their office space

Both CarMax and Priceline.com believe that the key to innovation is collaboration. But how does a company begin to collaborate when employees are shuttered in their own offices and departments are siloed? Enter the collaboration conundrum.

“That means you physically pick up your desk and you move it and you sit next to the people you will be innovating with. This means you move chairs a lot,” said Scott Lake, director of product planning and strategy at Priceline, at the Digiday Brand Summit in Deer Valley, Utah. Lake said he’s co-located at least 20 times during his six years at the company.

Ann Yauger, AVP of web and interactive from CarMax, said workplaces should knock down physical walls to force collaboration. “You cannot truly do collaboration if you’re working in cubicles or individual offices, that’s about individual productivity,” she said.

Watch what else CarMax and Priceline.com had to say about how to build a collaborative culture.

More in Marketing

The anatomy of an agency chief client officer

Several major agencies have moved to appoint chief client officers to their top cohorts lately.

How marketers rank this year’s generative AI image, video tools

Digiday’s 2025 agency generative AI report card explores the winners and losers of the generative AI landscape.

In memoriam: Brands we lost in 2025

Digiday Media staff rounded up some of the most notable brand names we lost in 2025, like Joann and Rite Aid.