How independent agencies go on the offensive to find new growth opportunities

Last month, media agency Apollo Partners added a growth and marketing exec to support its expansion strategy. The agency said anecdotally that it doubled in size, adding jobs throughout its San Francisco, New York and Austin, Texas, in the last two years. It also secured clients including Nature’s Bakery, Intuit and Mars as it continues to grow in the consumer packaged goods and quick service restaurant sectors.

Noel Johnson, who joined as head of growth and marketing, reports directly to CEO and founder Eric Perko and focuses on driving new client revenue growth and increasing the agency’s brand presence. At her previous agency Duncan Channon, she also supported the creation of a social and experiential practice after the acquisition of Los Angeles agency A2G in 2019.

“It’s trying to deliberately take advantage of all the momentum we have in the marketplace and just get out there — take more of an offensive approach and try to just get more at bats and more [pitch] considerations,” Perko told Digiday.

Perko touted Apollo’s expansion as the product of growing its client relationships, diverse media expertise and finding service offerings that address unmet client needs to create unique work streams rather than just competing for existing RFPs.

For example, Apollo started consulting with Intuit, but the partnership turned into helping the company create a new business unit for Intuit’s SMB Media Labs product. As the activation team for Media Labs, Apollo is handling Intuit’s media business across Meta, LinkedIn, The Trade Desk and other digital extensions of the SMB product.

By leveraging its existing relationship and expertise to identify an opportunity to create a new, significant work stream for Intuit, Apollo went beyond just a typical client-agency engagement to expand its scope of work and impact for the client.

“They’re more than just a media agency,” said Cherry Joh, CMO of client Purely Elizabeth. “They’re a strategic partner that understands our goals and helps us achieve them. They are highly collaborative and bring creative media approaches that help Purely Elizabeth stand out in a competitive landscape.”

Apollo hopes to keep pushing into fast-growing industries, like financial technologies and fast food brands that need skilled media and marketing. Apollo is also adding entry-level to mid-senior positions in media buying, planning and analytics in its three markets. Perko did not specify how many positions were added.

Other shops have sprung up specializing in performance marketing and building on consultancy services. Last month, Will Anderson, former vp of growth at performance marketing agency Journey Further, launched performance marketing consultancy Growth Society to change the way brands strategize for growth. Currently the team is led by five advisors (including Anderson) that aim to take a different approach than agencies — by using a flexible team of freelancers and core digital specialists.

Anderson similarly said streamlining the pitching process, which can get expensive and competitive, and focusing on recruiting the right talent for the project, can ultimately allow clients to allocate their resources in growth areas.

“Our job really is to build those long-term relationships,” Anderson recently told Digiday, “because in the U.K., for example, every 12 to 24 months, brands will just go out to the market again and find new agencies. It’s really expensive to go through that pitch process again.”