Inside the indie agencies founded by Omnicom and IPG’s former staffers
New Mexico is a long way from Madison Avenue. Far enough that there’s space for alternative ways of thinking about advertising, and how it’s made, to emerge.
Bennie Reed, co-founder of This Will Be Good, is building an agency according to “a different model,” one without an office, organizational layers and only minimal overheads.
The agency, founded by Reed and partners Daniel Beaudoing and Brian Linder last year, rests on a triumvirate of creative direction, strategy and production expertise — and the “thriving community,” as Reed put it, of freelance talent in New Mexico. Clients include sports apparel brand Good Good Golf and get-out-the-vote campaign Builders Movement.
One thing Reed and his co-founders hold in common with other agency founders is their past. Prior to launching This Will Be Good, Reed spent over five years at creative agency Deutsch LA, now one node among many within Omnicom’s post-acquisition sprawl.
Between multiple rounds of layoffs and a steady outflow of staff in the months before and after the deal’s completion, the professional diaspora of former Omnicom or IPG creatives and media practitioners has grown in the last year. While some landed at new adland berths, others like Reed founded their own agency businesses after the end of their holdco careers.
Within the last year London’s Ace of Hearts was set up by former Adam&EveDDB execs Richard Brim and Martin Beverley, and Polly McMorrow, previously of McCann and BBH; former McCann New York global ECD Susan Young co-founded House of Rabbits; Ian Mackenzie, formerly of McCann Canada, co-founded creative studio Memory; and Evan Roberts (ex of TBWA\Australia) established TightKnit studio.
Another common theme is their rejection of the FTE model.
“We conceived of the business being a business that’s fit for the future, not one that’s trying to be a relic of the past,” said Ace of Hearts’ co-founder McMorrow.
Since its launch last year, the agency has amassed a staff of 30 and a score of clients, including healthcare firm Bupa and charity Save The Children. In addition to providing clients with strategic and creative expertise, it’s begun hiring from the media side of the aisle — Sabina Usher, formerly a partner at OMD UK, joined in May — to bolster its approach to client problems with knowledge drawn from planning.
The agencies being built by former IPG and Omnicom execs aren’t attempts to replicate Adam&Eve or TBWA. They’re intended to be leaner, sharper and often more reliant on freelance talent. In Ace of Hearts’ case, the agency has entirely abandoned the FTE commercial model in favor of a range of different methods such as performance-based fees, project-based briefs, subscription deals for creative IP and in two cases, taking equity in a client.
“We believe in partnerships. We believe in being able to grow businesses,” said McMorrow. “We don’t believe that the historical models of hours plus or a rate card system is one that services anyone.”
While Reed said his time at Deutsch was a positive experience (“I had a great run, worked on amazing accounts with great clients,” he said), both Ace of Hearts and This Will Be Good’s approaches stand in stark contrast to the network agency model.
“We expand and flex with every single client we get and every single project we get,” he said. “You’re getting top-tier talent without the fluff.”
Marketing execs leaving agency titans to set up their own shop isn’t a new development. Plenty of indies have been founded by former holdco staffers and leaders, and in some cases sold back to the network giants after a few years. Uncommon’s founders, for example, all spent time at WPP’s Grey London; the agency was acquired by Havas in 2023, though such deals are increasingly rare as holding company growth strategies move on from the shopping spree tactics used a decade ago.
Robert Douglas saw the holdco agency carousel from both sides — spending nine years at Young & Rubicam, witnessing its milestone acquisition by WPP before stints at BBDO, Ogilvy and Dentsu. In 2021, he co-founded agency Left Off Madison, which offers both media and creative services, in New York, and which works with clients like food company Ajinomoto and toy firm Sanrio.
“We feel strongly that more clients are in need of flexibility,” he said. Like This Will Be Good, the business relies on freelance talent to service larger briefs and projects as necessary; the agency’s ideal client is one with a media budget stretching into the millions, but which might not yield the same attention from a network agency as, for example, a Ford or Coca-Cola.
Despite building an agency designed as an antithesis to holdcos, Douglas said his training within them was invaluable. “Young & Rubicam was so much about training their account people to be jacks of all trades and, maybe, masters of none. I ended up knowing a lot about everything,” he said.
Douglas’ experience is a reminder that Reed and McMorrow aren’t breaking new ground by stepping out of the holding company shadow. Where they are innovating is in discarding the commercial model of their former employers wholesale.
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