Join us Dec. 1-3 in Nashville for the Digiday Programmatic Marketing Summit
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
Why brands like Anthropologie are commissioning creator-created shows instead of posts
Brands go from booking creators to green-lighting shows.
Mars wants to future proof impulse buys as AI is poised to take over more grocery runs
Mars readies for AI grocery agents by chasing LLM visibility and immersive stores as impulse buys shift. See what’s at stake.
TikTok Shop launches a paid premium tier for 1M of its top U.S. shoppers
TikTok Shop is offering the shopping service to more than 1 million people it has identified as its most loyal U.S. customers.