Data, AI & the modern agency: A conversation with Carla Bourque and Michael Kaplan
The marketing ecosystem has proliferated over the past decade, and that trend is not subsiding. Modern agencies must understand the essential shifts taking place and adapt to changes in the global technology market to evolve and thrive. Instead of thinking about themselves solely as execution-based third-party providers, agencies need to drive innovation and value creation by leveraging the unique tech and objective data access they provide.
In the first segment of our Leadership Link series, Carla Bourque, CEO of Rebrandly, discussed these changes and their impact with Michael Kaplan, Director of Agency Business Development at Google. In their frank and provocative conversation, Bourque and Kaplan examined what 2025 trends will matter and how agencies can transform their business model and redefine their value as growth partners instead of cost centers. They also discussed what it takes to make those changes at scale.
Rebrandly and Google, in conversation, illuminate the evolution of agency/partner relationships, the scope of these changes, and their impact on agency economics. Specifically, they discuss how agencies must adjust their strategies to remain competitive in a marketing landscape inundated with performance metrics and an overwhelming amount of data. Michael and Carla provide valuable insight into navigating complexity, and discuss how agencies can streamline their approach to help their clients grow.
To get started, Carla and Michael first looked at the evolution of the marketing technology ecosystem and the role of marketing in strategic SaaS/AdTech growth.
Martech’s essential role in strategic agency growth
This quote from Michael sums up the core dilemma for modern agencies—how to become a value driver for their clients and partners. One of the most substantial shifts in the marketing technology landscape over the past decade has been the function of marketing itself increasingly recognized as a core business driver versus a cost center.
Market perception changes are driving CMOs and organizations to rethink their marketing investments. There’s a trend toward increasing investments to fuel business growth, and good agencies will play a pivotal role in aligning marketing strategies with broader business goals.
You can also see the agency, client relationship evolving in two other ways:
- Rising expectations from the client side: The stakes are higher, and the client’s needs and objectives are more advanced. The agency’s results must meet a certain threshold to justify a client’s spending. Increasing the stakes blurs the lines between traditional agency and consultancy roles.
- Boundary setting from agencies: Because the lines between agency and consultancy are blurring, agencies need to work harder to differentiate their value as sustainable business partners. They need to balance bold strategies with tangible growth results.
One way agencies can slip into the consultant role is by focusing on something other than performance metrics. “I see agencies and their clients sometimes discounting or ignoring the power and importance of brand identity, ” said Carla, responding to how agency and client focus has shifted towards metrics-driven conversations. Performance metrics are great for conversion and organic growth rates and easier to track, but Brand and Brand Trust are what foster the most engaged relationships between clients and their customers.
“The average client needs to be reminded that brand marketing is also performance marketing,” Added Michael. The metrics are different and a bit less tangible than traditional growth goals. The shift away from brand marketing is also due to changing consumer behavior. The seamless online experience blurs attribution metrics because neither agencies nor their clients want to impede the journey from prospect to buyer.
That reticence can be seen in the decline in testing and experimentation as a key part of agency and client processes. Testing involves risk if every action is tied to specific performance goals. “Testing and experimentation used to be an art,” Michael said, urging agencies to run tests with clients. With data and technology, you can now do things monthly—or even weekly.”
One of the best ways agencies can start reincorporating experimentation is by integrating personalized communication into their broader omnichannel strategy. For example, SMS marketing with smart links is an untapped resource for many companies because it’s less widely tested than email or social media. “Are agencies looking at more personalization in channels like text messaging, MMS, and SMS?” asked Carla. “Are they looking at traditional modes or balancing the mix of their media plans?”
To answer that, agencies need to understand how their experimentation impacts the overall value they provide to clients. It’s all about using the data available to make smarter decisions and test new hypotheses.
Read more about how first-party data drives growth and innovation.
The role of AI in the future of agency economics
AI tools have quickly become ubiquitous across every industry and business function, increasing growth and efficiency. But that doesn’t mean AI is the sole solution for every problem or a threat to agencies’ bottom line. Michael puts this into perspective in his quote, clarifying that it’s not AI that agencies are up against; it’s the organizational gains that result from people using AI that have increased competition in the market.
There are several different ways AI providers claim to impact the marketing technology landscape today, but in reality, there are three impactful ways to implement AI today:
- Streamlining operations for your team: One of the best ways agencies can use AI is to enhance their team’s efficiency. AI tools help you optimize internal processes and empower team members to do more without significantly increasing workloads. You can more effectively manage large amounts of data and surface insights quicker with a lean team, leading to quicker time to value for clients.
- Embedding AI in your tool stack: Agencies can also use the AI tools built into existing platforms to optimize campaigns and simplify analysis. Nowadays, most marketing technology has incorporated an aspect of AI into its core functionality, which agencies can implement to extract more value from their current tool stack without increasing costs or training requirements.
- Applying AI to existing challenges: With the right development team, agencies can build custom AI tools and solutions, such as advanced data and predictive analytics models. Analyzing results using AI helps your team drive actionable insights and creative innovation for their clients and bypass potential issues arising from the agency model.
AI helps agencies enhance their team’s creativity by taking over the rote/functional tasks your agency needs to create value for clients. The right AI tools will improve measurement, streamline communication, and help you foster client relationships that deliver tangible outcomes by providing value faster. It’s all about empowering small teams to do more with fewer resources and increasing your ability to connect with a client audience at scale.
It’s important to note that adopting AI doesn’t mean it will take over the human input required to build solid relationships with clients. AI-assisted work is more scalable because it gives individual contributors the support they need to innovate and foster connections that generate value for your agency. Still, it isn’t a panacea for every problem. The best agencies will intentionally integrate AI tools into their organization, focusing on supporting and augmenting their current processes.
It’s time to build a better agency tool stack
Agencies are poised to become an even more dynamic force for driving client growth in the future—provided they learn how to adapt to the challenges of an ever-evolving technological
landscape. To cement their position as value-adding partners, agencies and clients must work together to embrace change, lean into testing, and innovate collaboratively.
An interconnected tool stack will be one of the core drivers of this change, giving clients and agencies the flexibility they need to accelerate their growth. By working with best-in-class tools, agencies can cement their relationships with clients as critical growth partners and back them up with actual results. Platforms like Rebrandly, passionate about integrating throughout the martech stack and strongly focusing on APIs, will be the key to building an ecosystem of tools that genuinely work together towards a singular goal.
Learn more about how Rebrandly can support modern campaigns and increase agency innovation.
