5 Minutes with… Brad Simms
GALE started as a seven-person CRM and data agency in Canada in 2014. Today it is an almost 800-person, full-service agency - still with data at its core - across 11 offices.
It has been reverse-engineered compared to many other creative agencies. Having started out with data, GALE more recently added media into the mix, which now makes up 40% of its business - creative, 25%. In fact, three years ago, GALE didn’t have a media practice. Today, it handles almost a billion dollars in media billings, a figure that continues to grow.
In 2022, GALE grew by 130% and has added more than 400 people in the last two years, fuelled by client wins, including H&R Block, Hard Rock, Abbott and Hertz. It is the fastest-growing agency within the Stagwell network.
The person who founded this business and today acts as its president and CEO is Brad Simms. Brad is also the global CEO of Crispin Porter + Bogusky, a role he assumed in 2022 as widespread changes were announced to form a new look for the iconic agency (https://www.lbbonline.com/news/second-to-none-a-new-look-crispin-porter-bogusky-for-the-modern-era).
LBB’s Addison Capper spoke to Brad about how he is navigating such fast, intense growth, how the recoupling of media and creative has been a key driver behind it, and why an integrated approach is suited to the demands of modern marketers in recessionary times.
LBB> Tell me about GALE’s ‘Business Agency’ positioning. How does that make you unique?
Brad> When we started GALE nine years ago, the idea of agency
-plus-consultancy was unheard of. Today, it has become common in the industry for agencies to build consultancy practices, driven by major acquisitions in the marketplace like Accenture’s purchase of Droga. But, the magic of GALE is that we’ve been bringing consulting-level thinking and agency-level execution to our clients for nine years. We were ahead of the game. Part of the founding idea of GALE was to be as smart about our client’s businesses as management consultancies and to execute with the emotional, creative and storytelling of an agency. That's the founding idea, and with that, you get our positioning of ‘Business Agency’.
At the beginning of GALE, folks thought it was a crazy idea. The good news is while others may just be exploring the space, we’ve spent nine years refining our process. We’ve added services that we believe are critical to delivering on the agency's promise while also maintaining our consultancy core and data-first focus. We’ve become full-service over time as we’ve needed additional levers to answer marketers’ problems. That’s how we’ve become an almost 800-person agency and one of the most awarded in the US in the last 12 months.
LBB> As you’ve mentioned, GALE has had incredible growth. What has been the driver?
Brad> The unlock for us came four years ago when CMOs started to realise that they wanted fewer agencies to do more. They didn’t necessarily want just one agency but they wanted to move from 10 to three, or eight to two, and give those agencies bigger, integrated remits to create more consistency in their marketing communications. That’s really tough to do across eight agencies because that means all they're doing is project managing agencies, and not actually being marketers.
What we're seeing is a new breed of CMOs that want and believe marketing needs to be tightly integrated when they communicate with prospects and customers. To do so, fewer agencies become a mandate.
We have an almost infinite number of combinations of things we can do. Whether that’s media and CRM, media and technology, or creative and digital. No one's coming to the market asking for the exact combination of services. Everyone has a different balance that makes sense for their brand, and our integrated position means whatever that melange of services you want is, we can build it at GALE. Being able to build a unique team within GALE is a differentiator for us; we aren’t pairing different sub-agencies across a holding company ecosystem, we are responding as one agency, GALE.
LBB> Growth is great but does represent challenges in terms of sticking to your core ethos, culture, and completing work to its potential. How have you dealt with that?
Brad> It may sound counterintuitive but we have grown by not focusing on growth, but instead focusing on our people. Growth is the outcome of hiring great people and finding great clients to partner with. We’ve handled our exponential growth by not losing sight of our focus on our people. We know how critical it is to invest in their development, which is why we have a twice-yearly promotion cycle, as well as have our people invest in the GALE story. Earlier this year, we did the first-ever GALE world tour where I visited each of our offices to tell the GALE conception story for those that may not have heard it before having joined through the pandemic. These sessions were designed to share our seven core values with the additional 400 people that joined us over the last two years while also reminding employees that have been with us since day one of their significance. Having now expanded globally, a world tour is something we’ll do each year to ensure our story remains consistent no matter where you’re located.
Brad hosting the GALE World Tour 2023
LBB> How do you source - and grow - talent at GALE?
Brad> At the senior level, we’re looking for talented executives that want to do marketing differently. As an example, when I hire executive creative folks, I ask the question: ‘When we do a new business pitch, who do you think should be presenting?’. The majority of the time, creatives say, “We present first.” However, at GALE, we know that great creative is the outcome of strong strategic work. The right senior executive for GALE responds with, “I want to present great creative ideas in a business pitch that's set up by an unbelievable strategy.” That’s when I know they’re thinking about things in an integrated, different way.
At the junior level, we’ve found success in growing great humans through our accelerator programs. Our Graduate GALE Development programme is a year-long collaborative experience. Candidates rotate through four different domains, spending three months in each. In each domain, they are paired with a mentor who they work with collaboratively on client work. This is how we end up with integrated thinkers who think the way we think about marketing. We recently launched a Media Accelerator programme to grow talent across paid social, paid search, programmatic and SEO.
LBB> You tout the recoupling of creative and media as one of the reasons behind its success. Why is that business shift proving so popular? What spurred you to recouple in that way?
Brad> Four years ago, we surveyed consumers to name their top three favourite brands. People responded by listing brands like Uber, Disney and Netflix. Two weeks later, we asked the same panel to list key messages from their favourite brands. Two weeks later, we asked them to name the channels in which they heard those messages. None of them could remember the channels. We realised that media channels are irrelevant to consumers.
We’re no longer in a three-network or four-newspaper game in which consumers know where they receive messages. We’re in a 10,000 media option game, which makes the channel obsolete. As an agency, we realised that, to be more consumer-centric, we needed to have the capability to tell stories on all those 10,000 channels.
The consumer doesn't view media as media. If they're watching 'Jeopardy', they know a TV commercial is media. But if they order an Uber and see another brand within the app, they don’t realise it’s an ad. Our ability to be relevant to consumers was reliant on creative and media coming back together, which supercharged our offering. The fact that we can do unbelievable brand creative and buy media at scale is one of the biggest differentiators for GALE.
LBB> You believe that an integrated model is meeting the demands of modern marketers in recessionary times - please tell us more about that. Why is this integrated approach so in demand now?
Brad> If we really understand our client’s business, whether we want to debate if we're in a recession or not, we can be advisors to how they can continue to drive outcomes.
Some businesses are booming right now and can't even hire enough people. It’s inconsistent across industries, which is causing confusion. During these times, our consultancy model and the flexibility of our offering, become essential. Some of our clients’ businesses are through the roof, and some of our clients are really struggling. You can't apply a one-size-fits-all methodology, but we haven't had to change our model to accommodate that. It's just the luck of the way we created GALE. We understand clients that have more pressure on their business, we understand clients that are booming, and we don't apply a 'this is what we do' to accomplish that. It's the advisory approach that allows us to be more aware - not immune - at this time.
LBB> In 2022, you added the title of global CEO of Crispin Porter + Bogusky, one of the world’s most famed creative agencies. How are you reclaiming the magic of Crispin in today’s world?
Brad> Crispin earned its reputation as the industry disruptor, redefining what creativity looks like. But the world has changed so much since the agency came on the scene, and as I’ve shared, clients are looking for integrated solutions that perform across all touchpoints. There is no magic without the business results. In April this year, we announced the combination of four agencies under the iconic Crispin banner (https://www.lbbonline.com/news/second-to-none-a-new-look-crispin-porter-bogusky-for-the-modern-era). This was a move to double down on brand equity of Crispin, while bringing together an integrated creative powerhouse with specialty capabilities from MMI (media and performance marketing), Vitro (boutique creative), and Observatory (brand entertainment). We’ve recently hit the 90-day mark and our new business pipeline has never been stronger, clients are excited by the suite of new offerings, and our people have greater opportunities for collaboration across the work.
LBB> I think it’s fair to say that GALE was more of an industry underdog for many years. Why do you think the industry just started paying attention?
Brad> The industry is seeing the work we’re putting out and the results we’re driving. In all honesty, that recognition takes time. Every week, there's a new three-person agency starting up and they emerge with a big splash and just as quickly fade into the background to never be heard from again. At GALE, we’ve tried not to overpromise and oversell ourselves before we had the results to speak to. We recognised the world didn't need another new agency with no accomplishments.
It took us almost eight years but when we really started investing in the GALE brand 12 months ago, we had a significant body of work and strong results, and also the element of surprise. That’s the recognition we were always holding out for.
LBB> Which piece(s) of work best represent everything we've spoken about?
Brad> The work we’re doing for the milk category in the US [MilkPEP] has me fired up for a few reasons. Firstly, it is fully integrated; we handle media, creative, PR, influencer, social and more. Secondly, it’s starting to get real traction in culture. And, thirdly, it’s starting to drive lower funnel results.
On the creative side, it demonstrates the ability to execute creative and what l call creator. On the media side, we are doing Times Square takeovers and print ads in the New York Times as well as activations with influencers.
It shows what I would call a modern brand. It bucks the trend of, ‘Is it performance marketing or brand marketing?’ At Milk, we have proved that great performance marketing pushes brand and great brand marketing drives performance. We've shattered the 'or' and replaced it with an 'and', and that is really impactful.
LBB> GALE recently became the largest agency to sign the Clean Creatives pledge, refusing work with fossil fuel clients. Why was this an important move for the agency?
Brad> Signing the Clean Creatives pledge is a commitment to the most important thing we have: our planet. Refusing to work with fossil fuel companies is the least we can do to support our future and shows our commitment to sustainability as a business. It’s become of increasing importance to our people and clients, and we hope by signing up that it will inspire other agencies to do the same.
LBB> We spoke a lot about the growth over the last year or two, but what are your main focuses for the rest of the year?
Brad> GALE had incredible momentum coming into 2023 and we stand to have another solid year. That said, a lot is happening in the economy, and as an agency, you are only ever renting clients, so we can never become complacent.
When I think of the success of agency businesses, there are three questions to consider:
Are you selling something people are buying? Is your agency brand strong? And at what pace is the deal flow coming in? As long as you have two out of three of those things, you've got a healthy agency. You can't control the deal flow, so you know the two things you've got to control. At GALE, our brand is strong and our services are on point, so the only question and variable we can't control in the market is the deal flow. I feel confident about the two variables I can control, and we'll keep our fingers crossed on the deal flow and the economy.
