CONTENTS

• Why Agencies Can’t Do It All Themselves

• How Outsourcing Media Execution Strengthens an Agency’s Team

• For Agencies, Technology Is an Arms Race: Only the Strong Survive

• Outsourcing Partnerships: A New Model for Growth and Profitability

• “Fire in the Belly”: Keeping Your Team’s Passion for Advertising Alive

• The Beat Goes On: The Role of Harmony in an Agency’s Media Workflow

• Conclusion

The independent agency landscape is complex, especially for indie agency shops that execute media campaigns for brand clients.

This reality prompted MediaPost to create a six-part series exploring these critical issues independent agencies face, as identified through Pathlabs’ work as a Media Execution Partner (MEP). 

Furthermore, this series aims to provide a clear solution for how independent agencies can make media execution work for them through an MEP.

Below, let’s revisit each part of this series and what they uncover, including tactics for strengthening an in-house agency team, navigating the ongoing “arms race” with technology, figuring out how to drive growth and profitability, and much more.

Why Agencies Can’t Do It All Themselves

This opening piece explores the current phenomenon of independent agencies attempting to handle all their client’s media execution in-house. Oftentimes, agencies are finding themselves stretched too thin trying to juggle everything from technology to optimizations to analytics and reporting. Pathlabs' CEO, William Lapointe, explains that this approach leads to overworked teams, lower profits, and slower growth. 

Agencies simply lack the necessary people, expertise, and technology, making it difficult to independently create and scale the world-class operations they envision. Learn how to navigate these pitfalls and explore how a shift to outsourcing can help unlock your agency's full media execution scaling potential.

How Outsourcing Media Execution Strengthens an Agency’s Team

In this installment, MediaPost explores how outsourcing media execution through partnership can fortify an agency’s team. Agency leaders like Sam Burn of Cayenne Creative and Evann Bishop of Conquer share their experiences of how these partnerships provide access to top-tier talent, alleviate workload pressures, and help maintain a focus on strategic and creative growth. 

Learn how an MEP can transform your agency by enhancing team morale, ensuring talent retention, and creating a more resilient and dynamic work environment. 

For Agencies, Technology Is an Arms Race: Only the Strong Survive

Technology is evolving rapidly, and for independent agencies, keeping up can feel like an “arms race.” These agencies must acquire and maintain a comprehensive tech stack to successfully perform all media execution activities. Yet, not all smaller and mid-sized agencies have easy access to this tech or the bandwidth and budget to use it to its full potential. 

Examine how outsourcing media execution through a partnership can provide critical access to cutting-edge technology without the hefty price tag. Hear from agency heads like Marc Stryker at Penna Powers and Sam Burns of Cayenne Creative on how an MEP is helping them level the playing field, allowing them to offer state-of-the-art solutions to clients.

Outsourcing Partnerships: A New Model for Growth and Profitability

Increasing overall agency growth and profitability is a significant focus for independent agencies. In this article, agency leaders like Ly Tran of Stiletto Collective and Marc Styker of Penna Powers share insights on how leveraging external expertise has enabled them to scale operations, improve client performance, and maintain financial health. 

Understand how these strategic partnerships can help your agency achieve sustainable growth while controlling costs and enhancing service quality.

“Fire in the Belly”: Keeping Your Team’s Passion for Advertising Alive

Most independent agency professionals enter this field driven by a passion for creative and strategic work, not necessarily media execution. So, when tasked with activities like trafficking ads and media buying, agency teams often feel overwhelmed and unfulfilled. 

Hear from agency leaders like David Heimlich of The Blossom Project and Brent Barbee of Conquer on why keeping the passion alive in your team is so critical for long-term success. Unlock the path to keeping your independent agency team motivated and engaged by allowing them to focus on what truly sparks their interests, ultimately leading to better employee retention and job satisfaction while passing off the media execution tasks to a partner.

The Beat Goes On: The Role of Harmony in an Agency’s Media Workflow

This final article brings together insights from previous installments in the series to demonstrate how agencies’ collaborations with Pathlabs have led to more predictable and efficient workflows. 

Discover how agencies like Town Hall maintain smooth operations and deliver superior results through collaborative workflows thanks to Pathlabs. Take a comprehensive look at how outsourcing media execution through a partnership can enhance your agency’s efficiency and effectiveness, ensuring long-term growth and success.

In Conclusion…

If it wasn’t clear before, it is clear now that independent agencies have a tall order for executing clients’ media. 

They must harness the right people, technology, and workflows. They must also ensure their agency stays profitable and growing while their in-house people are happy and pursuing their passions.

When these agencies feel like they can’t do it all, they don’t have to. As the series explains, the solution is in a Media Execution Partner (MEP).

If you work at an independent agency and are ready to collaborate with an MEP, contact us below!