Ex-VML and TBWA Execs Build ‘Brand-Savvy GPS’ Tango & Cache

New agency and platform Tango & Cache is aiming to “rewire” the traditional agency workflow into a scalable OS, to be put directly in the hands of creative teams, either agency-side or in-house.

The latest independent venture to be launched by former network executives, Tango & Cache was co-founded by chief strategist and former Connecting Plots strategy partner Craig Page, ECD and former TBWA creative director Ross Weythman, alongside head of AI solutions Patrick Rabier, and creative technology director Rhys Turner.

Craig, Ross, and Rhys all previously worked together at VML Sydney, leading their respective departments in strategy, creative, and creative technology. Patrick is a former Accenture Song engineer and AI specialist who previously worked with Rhys at Chanel.

Collectively, the founding team’s careers have spanned Sydney, New York, London, Dubai and Hong Kong, producing award-winning work for a global roster of brands and organisations including Nike, Google, Wendy’s, and a U.S. presidential campaign.

Tango & Cache trains AI on a mix of brand strategy, creative psychology, and lived experience to streamline workflows, allowing creative teams to focus on creativity and craft. For now, they’re making campaign-ready work through their proprietary OS, Cache, but the vision is to put Cache directly in the hands of other creative teams, whether in-house or agency-side.

“The ad industry doesn’t need another agency,” Craig said.

“It needs a way to rapidly evolve without losing the human touch that makes work great.”

Patrick Rabier added traditional agencies using AI to speed up existing processes is a kind of ‘faster horse’ problem.

“Cache allows us to reconsider the conventional agency workflow without the usual constraints of the traditional linear system,” he explained. “We’re focused on modelling useful patterns that make the work better, not just pushing out faster output.

Rhys Turner added this is the problem “most big holding companies” are currently trying to solve.

“Because we don’t have the revenue to protect, or shareholders to appease, we can do it with more agility and transparency.”

Tango & Cache’s proprietary creative operating system, Cache, is shaped by the founders’ years of creative, strategic, and technological experience, designed to take on the parts of the agency process AI can do well, so creative teams can spend “more time on the things humans do best”.

This balance of instinct and iteration, Ross Weythman explained, is core to the team’s philosophy.

“Cache is everything we’ve learned, uploaded and over-caffeinated,” Rhys said.

“It allows us to concentrate on making the creative as effective and memorable as possible. It’s important to us that Cache isn’t fully automated, but more like a brand-savvy GPS we want other creative teams to be able to drive with.”

The team is currently working with select early-stage clients to refine the model in real time.

“If you’ve got a real brief and want to try working a little differently, we’d love to chat,” Craig said.