Media Buying Briefing: For a small independent, Butler/Till is innovating on a number of levels

Already those are differentiating stripes — but the agency has also carved out some unique disciplines that have set it apart from not only other Indies (some of whom are actual clients as well) but the major holding companies too. And it’s just hired a new head of product to ensure those tools are cutting-edge, while developing other new offerings. Clients range from health care to insurance, to other agencies, and revenue growth is expected to hit 35 precent over 2024, according to its executives.

Although many in the industry talk about optimal stewardship of media dollars, Butler/Till’s president and CEO Kimberly Jones and her team choose to help clients experiment with new options and alternatives in order to optimize efficiently. “We have clients that will not invest any dollars if a particular tactic, sometimes even down to a placement level, doesn’t already have a demonstrable return on their investment,” said Jones. “How else are you going to be able to test anything new, unless we create an opportunity for them to do it in a less risky way.”

The first way Butler/Till gets clients to experiment is through what it calls an “innovation fund” that it launched in 2024 — a pool of monies gathered from rebates and incentives offered by DSPs and SSPs. Where holding companies (and perhaps some of the bigger Indies) are inclined to direct those savings right to their bottom line, Butler/Till offers up those funds for clients to experiment with.  

“What could we do with these funds that will help move your business forward?” Explained Scott Ensign, B/T’s chief strategy officer, citing an enhanced data modeling and reporting project for a pharma client he declined to identify. “Even if it’s a programmatic partner or a data partner, an audience partner, the initiative itself could be market research, creative, programmatic or even data related. All of the things that don’t always make the plan, because we can’t tie an ROI to it, it’s brand new, or it’s innovative or it’s a little bit more speculative. The fund allows us to break out of those planning cycles that are often, frankly, resistant to innovation.”

“It’s very much accretive to the value that our clients are already getting,” added Jones. “The reason why our partners are so eager to participate is that they know that innovation is good for the entire ecosystem. So even if we’re not spending those dollars back exactly with them, they know that it will eventually benefit.”

B/T also has created a means for clients that have franchisees to execute on a local level but via a centralized offering it calls Better Local. Ensign explained that it’s a tool for enterprise organizations with a distributed local footprint, like agent networks, dealer networks, franchisees of a national chain, etc. For example, a QSR could log in to see what corporate has made available — paid search, social, CTV or streaming, or digital out of home packages — then adjust to that locality’s needs and budgets. The tool then goes through a checkout process to pay directly, be billed directly, and finally, to see results and reporting of whatever executions were chosen.

Although Butler/Till has franchising clients that use it (the agency declined to say which due to client sensitivities, but think insurance), another client is fellow agency Laughlin Constable, a full-service shop out of Chicago and Milwaukee that uses Better Local for a retail client it declined to name that has 200 stores with hyper-local needs. 

Better Local “really makes having those hyper local, individual store campaigns so much easier to manage, because you have one platform, you have one reporting dashboard,” said Vanessa Watts, evp and head of media at Laughlin Constable, who said the low six-figure cost is 100 percent worth it. “I can choose each individual store location to see how their campaign is delivering or look at it as an aggregate across everything. But more importantly, the individual store owners have access to the performance dashboard. And that was really critical, because our client wanted each store owner to have access, to look at the performance.”

Since healthcare forms a chunk of B/T’s client base, being careful with regulations while still trying new executions is paramount. The agency “helped us think through media mix modeling in a way that felt both contemporary and pragmatic,” said Beth Wilson, executive director of multiple sclerosis marketing at client TG Therapeutics. Rather than relying solely on traditional approaches, Wilson and team tried out advanced modeling — combined with performance data and real-world HCP+DTC behavior. “It wasn’t about adding more complexity; it was about clarity. They brought forward a thoughtful balance of innovation and simplicity, helping us reframe how we evaluate our media’s true impact,” she added.

All these offerings required someone to helm them, which is why Digiday has learned that B/T has hired entrepreneurial ad-tech veteran Manny Puentes to be its first-ever chief product officer, who starts today. He describes the job as taking “all of the experience that Butler/Till brings to the table and already proven out to work, and then start to scale those enterprise solutions.”

A veteran of Genius Sports and Media Math among others, Puentes comes with a reputation for building and scaling products, which is right where the agency is at the moment. “Given that I’ve built a lot of platforms, we’re going to be able to move and scale a lot faster,” he said. 

 Amanda DeVito, B/T’s CMO, acknowledged the need for Puentes’ skillset and experience to bring a new level of rigor to the agency’s products and tools. “I’m really proud of us as an organization to know what we don’t know,” said DeVito. “Or we know someone out there knows it even more and has this history, and has done it and proven himself time and again. Manny had me at hello.”

As DeVito’s comments point out, ultimately a good part of successful partnership comes down to trust in the people you work with, noted Wilson. “In this industry, you don’t just stick with agencies — you stick with people,” she said. “Their ability to balance regulatory nuance with pushing us forward is why they stay relevant. So yes, I expect we’ll be working together for a long time.” 

Color by numbers

Only a few years ago, the out-of-home industry was breaking into offering its inventory on programmatic platforms. Things have since picked up pace. Place Exchange, an SSP for OOH, released its H1 2025 Programmatic OOH Trends Report, which breaks down ad spend across that landscape compared to H1 2024. Some findings: 

• Screen/TV assets slightly overtook billboards as the top category by spend (30% to 29%), indicating continued growth of video in DOOH.
• Food/drink (18%), tech (11%), health/fitness (10%) and travel (8%) were the top four ad categories.
• Programmatic screen count rose 16%, driven by growth in entertainment and retail venues.
• Programmatic OOH continued to transact predominantly via private deals (96% of H1 2025 spend). While custom PMPs represented the majority of spend (62%), always-on PMPs  grew to 29%. 

Takeoff & landing

• It was quite the week for high-level departures and hires in the media agency world. Independent PMG hired away Dentsu X North American CEO Leah Meranus to become its svp of customer success. And following Slavi Samardzija’s departure from Omnicom a few weeks ago, Stagwell CEO Mark Penn revealed in its earnings call that Samardzija has been hired in a to-be-named tech leadership capacity effective September. 
• Speaking of Stagwell, the challenger holding company’s H1 financial results showed a 7% gain in net revenue, alongside 3% growth in organic revenue. While EBITDA for the six months dropped 2%, the margin on it held pretty steady at 15%.  
• Account moves: Publicis won PayPal’s global media account, after WPP walked away from handling it in April … Dentsu not only retained but also grew its media business with BMW Group across 23 markets in Europe, effective 2026 … Mediaplus landed media duties for Gore-Tex brand in the U.S. and EMEA … WPP Media’s Mindshare retained media work for retailer Marks & Spencer, but sibling Wavemaker lost Morrison’s retail account to Publicis’ Zenith.

Direct quote

“AI isn’t a game changer in the sense that — yes, it’s quantum advance in the deployment of technology — but it doesn’t replace things … I view it as an enhancement.”

— Mark Penn, CEO of Stagwell.

Speed reading

• I covered the news that Nielsen and RealEyes together rolled out an outcomes measurement product last week that goes beyond just delivering ratings. 
• Sam Bradley wrote about the observation that Amazon abruptly cut off its ad spend on Google Shopping — and what that could mean for the commerce giant. 
• Sam also checked in with media buyers to find out what they want from Netflix’s ad offerings if they’re going to increase spending on the streaming platform.