It comes as no surprise that Marla Kaplowitz is not a fan of the trend among brands to bring agency capabilities in house. As president and CEO of the 4A’s her job is to be the cheerleader-in-chief for advertising agencies. In this episode of Remotely Entertaining — shot on the floor of the ANA Masters of Marketing conference in Orlando this week — Kaplowitz breaks down her vision (with the help of a couple of emojis).
“It’s important for marketers to remember they need that outside thinking, that outside provocation. And agencies do that in a brilliant way,” she says.
She believes the agency-CMO relationship, which has had some choppy waters, is improving. “It’s strengthening. It’s been challenged,” she says. “To me the best CMOs see any external partner or agency as an extension of their own team and the way they work. The best agencies are only really going to deliver the best work when they’re valued and brought under the fold to really understand the business dynamics and what’s happening.”
Kaplowitz also cops to finding the narrative of the agency talent crisis as tedious. “I’m so tired of people painting it as doom and gloom. There’s some brilliant people in agencies,” she says. “It’s a struggle in any industry to attract the right kind of talent and to compete for that.”
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This article first appeared in www.adage.com
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