Media Buying Briefing: Code and Theory Network does tech unlike other holdco operations

Built around the core agency Code and Theory, which was founded in 2001 and is led currently by co-founder Dan Gardner (who’s now executive chairman), the CandT network incorporates several “agencies” that focus heavily on technology, design and creative more than media. Shops such as Instrument, Kettle, YML, Left Field Labs, Mediacurrent and others make up the network, which boasts working with one out of four Fortune 500 companies as well as every one of the FAANG platforms (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google).

“We actually have the scale of a network with the right balance that we think doesn’t exist elsewhere,” said Gardner, who estimated that, annually, over 2 trillion transactions go through the products and services CandT has designed across clients like JPMorgan Chase and PayPal. “We don’t think there’s a company that has thousands of people where half of the company are creatives and half the company are technologists. We’ve either started up or IPO-ed about 18 companies.”

The group’s recent work includes handling the launch of Adobe GenStudio, part of Adobe’s Digital Media business. (Other Stagwell agencies including 72andSunny and Movers + Shakers will be handling work for Adobe.) CandT’s Kettle also just landed the job of redoing e.l.f. Beauty’s website. And T. Rowe Price handed CandT responsibility to transform its global digital footprint back in August.

“Everything that we do is technology led — when we talk to our partners, sometimes we use the word agency,” said Laurel Burton, CEO of Instrument. “Truthfully, we say we’re a technology-led company. Our partners come to us because of their systemic problems. They need to solve them with the newest and the latest and the emerging technologies.”

Qualcomm called on CandT to help execute a customer experience transformation, which in this case is a pretty sophisticated customer — developers, said Carmen True, Qualcomm’s vp of marketing. Among other projects, the network was asked to revamp Qualcomm’s development kit.

True was impressed that the CandT team wanted to advance the tech interface even farther than what was asked. “Instead of having a 1D pad drawing [on the redesigned development kit], Code and Theory helped us make a 3D movable version of our technology solution that [users] can then rotate around and play with and see all the different ports. The kit actually came to life for our developers.”

AI is obviously the biggest tech advancement and a need that most companies, marketers included, must think about, and Burton shared some surprise that other agencies she speaks with haven’t reached a level of acceptance.

“We’re not thinking about how we’re using it or how we’re integrating it — we’re thinking about, what’s the next thing that we do with it?” said Burton. “What’s the next historical thing that we want to challenge in order to reimagine what our partners are doing within the marketplace?”

Left Field Labs, another CandT shop, recently designed an activation at Salesforce’s recent Dreamforce event called Agent Force, bringing some of Salesforce’s AI technology to life in real life during the event. The centerpiece was a massive, 30-foot diameter kinetic structure resembling Albert Einstein’s head.

The type of engineering and tech talent to pull off such work doesn’t come cheap, as any CTO or CIO will tell you. Which is why CandT blends its U.S. based talent with what Gardner referred to as nearshore (mainly Latin America) and offshore (mainly India and The Philippines) employees. Gardner believes another differentiator between the way Stagwell in general works versus other holding companies is the ease of flow of talent across each of the companies within CandT.

“We have individual cultures and individual superpowers that we look to amplify, and those cultures remain” across the network, said Gardner, who proudly declares there are no “digital Jesuses” at the network. “We can mix and match teams at times. When we are together as a digital network, we are actually like-minded and can work together in the right ways — but we also have the cultures and expertise that we can also work separately. And that is really why the network was created.”

Other tech-minded agencies credit Stagwell for ably blending size and heft that a holdco brings but with a nimbleness of talent that feels fast-moving and doesn’t have the life squeezed out of it by the holdco structure.

Chris Mele is the managing partner at Siberia.io, an independent firm competitive with CandT or its shops in pitches for digital design or transformation work. He said he’s been impressed by what they bring to the table.

“We’ll walk into a pitch and we’ll find out that there’s [another traditional holdco agency] we’re not nervous,” said Mele. “We just know that our work is going to be stronger. Even if we may not win the business, it’s not going to be because we got out thought or out designed or anything like that. But if we walk into a pitch and find out that Instrument’s on the other side, or Code and Theory, we’re kind of sweating it a bit.”

Although Stagwell’s latest financials from Q2 of this year show that its Digital Transformation group, in which the CandT Network sits, has not enjoyed the strongest organic revenue growth at -1%, CandT is a solid contributor to Stagwell’s EBITDA growth at just under +6% year to date.

Gardner said the inbound work the network has allows for some selectivity of client choices. And he’s bullish on the fact that more companies are facing the need to transform their businesses — and may just call on CandT to make it happen.

“There’s going to be huge shifts that are going to punch organizations in the face that aren’t thinking about this today,” said Gardner. “They may be thinking about some efficiency on a very siloed aspect of some AI transformation. But they are not connecting the dots that are going to be required when industries get punched in the face.”

Color by numbers

Cord cutting continues in sports content, as all signs point to digital streaming as the future. Digital live sports are eclipsing traditional TV live sports, which will fall below a collective 90 million viewers for the first time this year, per eMarketer. Besides seeing a pandemic bump in 2021, traditional cable and satellite providers have not seen an uptick in live sports — and the decline is expected to continue in coming years. — Antoinette Siu

Some highlights:

• The number of people watching via cable, telco and satellite will decline 4.4% yearn over year for the next five years.
• Digital live sports viewing has jumped 466% since 2018, compared with traditional TV viewership that reached some 100 million in the same year. This will fall below 90 million and again to around 70 million by 2028.
• This year, 25.1% of the U.S. population of all ages watched live sports on traditional TV — but that will decline to 20.7% by 2028.
• Digital live sports viewers will grow 10.2% to reach 105.28 million in 2024, up from 18.6 million in 2018.

Takeoff & landing

• Out-of-home media agency Billups introduced attention metrics to its offerings via its Analytics Attention Dashboard, which aims to capture how traditional and digital OOH units compare to attention measurement in other channels.
• Stagwell’s Assembly expanded its operations in Poland with the launch of a Media division. It will be led by Natalia Plawgo, who has been promoted to managing partner, Central and Eastern Europe media manager.
• Personnel moves: Horizon Media tapped Domenic Venuto to be evp, chief of product and data, bringing him over from Progress Partners where he was COO … Dentsu named Ben Hewitt its chief commercial officer for media products, coming over from Publicis Groupe, where he most recently was president, Groupe technology and data solutions … Crossmedia hired Doug Schnebel as the new executive client director, head of planning, who comes over from UM where he was svp and managing director.

Direct quote

“When you connect a creator to a consumer action with an outcome, being able to really understand what that looks like and how trustworthy [they] are, it’s a good combination of actions.”

— Kevin Blazaitis, president of Omnicom Media Group’s influencer agency Creo, on working with Snapchat creators.

Speed reading

• I covered Unilever’s media assignments, which handed out work to all six of the major holding companies.
• Antoinette Siu explained how Plus Company agencies are joining forces to launch new influencer offerings under the moniker ‘performfluence.’
• I also looked into Wpromote’s move to expand from a performance-marketing shop to a full-service offering under the heading “brandformance.”
• Advertising Week starts this week. Here’s our guide to what’s in and out at this year’s event.