Save 50% on a 3-month Digiday+ membership. Ends Dec 12.
Digiday is running a series of video interviews with agency leaders on how to build the modern agency. The series is made possible through the sponsorship of Videology, a video advertising platform.
Kenny Tomlin doesn’t have the typical pedigree of an agency CEO. He led a software development company in the 1990s, then spent four years working for Wal-Mart. Rockfish was founded in 2006 as a cross between a software-development firm focused on usability and an agency.
At a time when many agencies are exploring new business models, Rockfish was begun with the structure that it would both work for clients and develop its own technology. That’s borne fruit in the form of digital-couponing platform CouponFactory, social-media monitoring tool TidyTweet and a half dozen other products. WPP Group bought Rockfish in August 2011.
“It was a part of our DNA from day one,” Tomlin said. “It’s more of a challenge for an agency with a long history to say suddenly, ‘Hey, we’re going to build products,’ and people to believe them. You have to have some history of showing that’s part of your culture.”
See the full interview with Tomlin below. Follow him on Twitter at @kennytomlin.
More in Marketing
‘We just did the math’: The new baseline for ad tech transparency
Ad execs said the industry is shifting toward a renewed transparency push driven as much by day-to-day operational pressure as by principle.
In Graphic Detail: Here’s what the creator economy is expected to look like in 2026
Digiday has charted its expected revenue, key platforms for creator content as well as what types of creators brands want to work with.
Ulta, Best Buy and Adidas dominate AI holiday shopping mentions
The brands that are seeing the biggest boost from this shift in consumer behavior are some of the biggest retailers.