The results are in: MediaMonks, Circus and Firewood have each been placed in the annual Adweek 100: Fastest Growing feature, following each of their placement last year. Fastest Growing honors the top 100 agencies and 10 top solution providers—large and small, from all over the world—whose industry presence is on the rise. MediaMonks ranked number 57 on the list overall; MediaMonks, Circus and Firewood each placed among the top 10 large agencies.

Because the list honors international agencies spanning every category, type and size that have achieved significant growth, we’re honored to be in such good company. But we’re especially excited to stand as three individual partners that have since banded together to offer a distinct, differentiated offering that helps brands innovate and resonate with digital audiences today—and while our approach is resonating with brands, we’re just getting started.

“I’m thrilled to see that it isn’t just MediaMonks that made the Adweek 100: Fastest Growing feature, but also our amazing colleagues at Circus and Firewood,” says Wesley ter Haar, founder of MediaMonks. “The mind wanders at what happens when you put three of the fastest growing agencies into a unitary structure and single P&L—there are many great things to come, and I’m looking forward to it.”

Independently, we continue to serve brands with the signature offering that made us each great from the start—with a continued passion for the clients and work that got us added to this list in the first place. MediaMonks is a premium digital experience partner, helping brands better understand and digitally connect with their audiences and build brand love in the process. Circus is a multicultural, fully integrated digital agency that partners with its clients to develop high-impact ideas, strategies and content that wins in the attention economy. And founded on the belief that good people are good business, Firewood is a pioneer of the “embedded” model, building in-house creative, strategy and technology teams that become extensions of its clients’ teams—and amplify their power.

Throughout 2020, these capabilities have helped brands show up in significant ways. Together, we gave sports fans the best seat in the house (their house); we brought people together as they marched for Pride from their living rooms; we extended the world’s most innovative AR/VR conference into AR and VR; and we’ve helped scale teams up while others have pulled back—facilitating not only our own growth, but that of our client partners as well.

“All of us come from a very different non-agency mindset,” says Juan Zambrano, cofounder of Firewood. “We’ve been disruptors from the start, and our goal has always been to support our clients at scale delivering speed, quality and value across the board—particularly at a time when taking a digital-first approach has become essential.”

“Circus’ roots lie in breaking new ground with impactful ideas led by data, fed by emotion and built at scale,” says Bruno Lambertini, founder of Circus. “As we look toward the future, we look forward to further empowering brands through greater collaboration and a cohesive offering with MediaMonks and Firewood.”

We’ve grown alongside our clients through this commitment to shared success. Together, we’re offering brands a one-stop solution as a best of breed partner in the digital marketing space. The results are advanced marketing and advertising technologies, with world-class creative, strategy and production on a global scale.

We believe innovation doesn’t wait. Let’s keep moving.

En un mundo en constante movimiento con equipos repartidos en un sinfín de sociedades (y en todo el mundo), la comunicación efectiva y la colaboración son críticas para el éxito, Para reducir la fricción entre equipos, Firewood Marketing, ahora parte de MediaMonks, lanzó su guía para aprovechar al máximo las campañas digitales comunicando de forma más efectiva: “Talk”. (Puedes encontrar este artículo en inglés aquí)

Dado que la colaboración efectiva es un esfuerzo de grupo que requiere alinear a todos los equipos, pensamos, “¿Qué mejor manera de discutir la colaboración que colaborando en todo MediaMonks y los socios con los que nos hemos fusionado en el último año?” Juntamos a los líderes de varios de nuestros equipos para obtener sus puntos de vista en algunos de los temas y las estrategias que los lectores encontrarán en esta guía.

Desde el inicio, “Talk” identifica varias cosas que los negocios se pierden cuando sus equipos no se comunican tan efectivamente como podrían. ¿Podrías resumir la exigencia para una mejor comunicación?

Kristoffer Belau (VP Digital Media, Firewood): Una falta de comunicación significa que existe el riesgo de cometer errores: la creatividad no está hecha a la medida, la campaña no está enfocada en la audiencia correcta, estás compitiendo con otras áreas de la empresa. A fin de cuentas todos estos son errores, y vienen de esta falta de coordinación por parte de las diferentes partes involucradas. La alineación de los equipos reduce estos riesgos.

“Talk” ofrece una serie de estrategias en diferentes situaciones para establecer colaboraciones más fuertes. ¿Cuál es tu estrategia de arranque?

Mansi Mehta (Business Development & Global Expansion, WhiteBalance): Nosotros no nos esperamos a alinear y reunir equipos. A menudo, las marcas y sus socios enfrentan períodos de gestación largos antes de que se refina el concepto. Esto se da principalmente porque las agencias convencionales no tienen a sus artistas in-house, lo que conlleva el riesgo de causar un juego de “teléfono descompuesto” que resulta en algo diferente a lo que originalmente habían imaginado.

Vera Cvetkovic (Managing Director, BizTech): A través de los años, trabajando con varios clientes en diferentes verticales, aprendimos la importancia de hacer las preguntas correctas, poner expectativas claras y guiar a nuestros clientes como asesores de confianza. Tener grandes habilidades de escuchar es también muy importante antes de encontrar la mejor solución a prueba del futuro que esté alineada con requerimientos específicos del cliente. Dada la complejidad de lo que hacemos, que abarca silos de negocios de clientes, IT y marketing, tenemos que ir más allá para que nuestra comunicación sea totalmente transparente en el contexto de la audiencia. Cada uno de los silos de los clientes posiblemente tendrá un ángulo diferente del mismo problema y de la solución potencial, así que es nuestro trabajo juntarlos todos y ser los “traductores” que unan a la estrategia común y a la ejecución. 

La guía también señala a los silos internos como uno de los grandes desafíos que enfrentan muchas organizaciones. ¿Cuáles son algunas estrategias o beneficios de encontrarles a todos un lugar en la mesa?

Lieseloth Wisbraun (Brand Partnership Manager, IMA): Organizamos workshops con todos los equipos para juntar a todos en una misma habitación. A partir de ahí, buscamos ser claros, amables y compartir conocimiento.

Louise Martens (Global Head of Embedded Production, MediaMonks): Cualquier preocupación acerca de los silos puede ser cortada de raíz al establecer una arquitectura de equipo. Cuando el equipo está parcialmente in-house, por ejemplo, las líneas se difuminan naturalmente, impactando positivamente la naturaleza de la colaboración. Entregar el poder es menos aterrador porque se siente como un equipo unificado.

Manejar expectativas es la verdadera prueba de una comunicación efectiva. ¿Cómo establecer expectativas desde el principio?

Jason Prohaska (Managing Director, MediaMonks NY): Entender a través de la educación es una de las mejores formas de generar una gran colaboración juntos y de parte del cliente, y esto no es algo que tratemos como un evento único. Todos se benefician cuando podemos tratar, probar y aprender juntos con oportunidades para dialogar abiertamente durante un proyecto. Las establecemos desde el principio como una parte obligatoria del alcance, lo que nos permite revisitar frecuentemente el entendimiento mutuo en el arco de la colaboración.

Martens: soy una gran fan de las alianzas en las que ser más eficientes es uno de los KPIs. Esto desbloquea un tipo de conversación totalmente diferente, y ambas partes se benefician de mejores flujos de trabajo y facilidad para trabajar. Cuando estos esfuerzos ganan velocidad, una gran relación fluye con naturalidad. Nuestro primer paso para alcanzarlo es adentrarnos a la marca. Establecimos embajadores de marca que realmente vivan y respiren la marca.

Belau: Nos esforzamos ofrecer una visión muy clara de cómo se podría ver la experiencia cuando todos se unen, buscando hacer el proceso de llegar hasta allá tan cómodo como sea posible para el cliente. De nuestro lado, esto significa dejarlo todo listo y organizado sin ninguna incertidumbre, para que el cliente se siga sintiendo en control de la situación.

Hay mucho más de qué hablar.

In a fast-moving world with teams spread across a myriad of partnerships (and across the globe), effective communication and collaboration are critical to success. To ease the friction felt between teams, Firewood Marketing, now part of MediaMonks, recently released their guide to getting the most out of digital campaigns by communicating more effectively: “Talk.”

Because effective collaboration is a group effort that requires alignment of all teams, we thought, “What better way to discuss collaboration than by collaborating across MediaMonks and the partners we’ve merged with throughout the past year?” We picked the brains of leadership from across our various teams, getting their own take on some of the points and strategies readers encounter within the guide.

From the start, “Talk” identifies several things that businesses miss out on when teams don’t communicate as effectively as they could. Could you summarize the imperative for better communication?

Kristoffer Belau (VP Digital Media, Firewood): A lack of communication means you risk making errors: the creative isn’t to spec, the campaign is not targeting the right way, you’re competing with other parts of the company. These are all ultimately errors, and they come from this lack of coordination from the various parties involved. Team alignment mitigates these risks.

“Talk” offers a handful of strategies in different situations to establish stronger collaboration. What’s your go-to strategy?

Mansi Mehta (Business Development & Global Expansion, WhiteBalance): We don’t wait to align and join together teams. Often, brands and their partners face long gestation periods before the concept is refined. This is predominantly because conventional agencies do not have their go-to artists in-house, which risks causing a game of “telephone” that results in something other than what they first envisioned.

Vera Cvetkovic (Managing Director, BizTech): Over the years working with various clients in different verticals, we learned the importance of asking the right questions, clearly setting expectations and guiding our clients as trusted advisors. Great listening skills are also very important before finding the best future-proof solution that is aligned with clients’ specific requirements. Given the complexity of what we do that spans client silos of business, IT and marketing, we have to go the extra mile with our communication to be crystal-clear within the context of the audience. Each of the clients’ silos are likely to have a very different lens on the same problem and potential solution, so it’s our job to bring them all together and be that “translator” that binds the common strategy and execution.

The guide also cites internal silos as one of the greatest challenges that many organizations face. What are some strategies or benefits to getting everyone a seat at the table?

Lieseloth Wisbraun (Brand Partnership Manager, IMA): We host workshops with all teams to get everyone in one room. From there, we aim to be clear, stay nice and share knowledge.

Louise Martens (Global Head of Embedded Production, MediaMonks): Any concerns about silos can be nipped in the bud when establishing a team architecture. When the team is partially in-housed, for example, the lines naturally blur, making a really positive impact on the nature of the collaboration. It’s less scary to hand over power because it feels like one unified team.

Managing expectations is the true test of effective communication. How do you establish expectations from the start?

Jason Prohaska (Managing Director, MediaMonks NY): Understanding through education is one of the best ways to afford great collaboration together and on behalf of the client—and this isn’t something we treat as a one-time event. Everyone benefits when we can try, test and learn together with opportunities to dialogue openly throughout a project. We set these up at the outset as a mandatory part of the scope, letting us frequently revisit shared understanding across the arc of collaboration.

Martens:  I’m a huge fan of partnerships in which gaining efficiency is among the KPIs. This unlocks a totally different type of conversation, and both parties benefit from better workflows and ease of working. When these efforts gain speed, a great relationship naturally follows. Our first step to achieve this is diving deep into the brand. We establish brand ambassadors that truly live and breathe the brand.

Belau: We strive to offer a very clear vision of what the experience could look like when everyone pools together, aiming to make the process getting there as comfortable as possible for the client. On our end, this means getting everything nice and organized with no uncertainty, so the client still feels control in the situation.

There’s so much more to talk about.