This management worked, the shop picking up Franklin Templeton and another customer of the real estate company (which refused to be identified) at the end of 2024.

“I think that is well done for us, being a tutor, because I think that the agency company has not performed well, as evidenced by the IPG and Omnicom before merging,” said Connors, who grew up in the agency world working for his father Jack, a co-founder of Hill Holliday. “While everyone was so caught in their own BS ​​agency, we were trying to understand how to be smarter than an agency – a little more consultative, but very clearly not trying to be also a consultant. Because consultants want to come and tell you your business. ”

The Connors and the team strategy is rather to connect the CMO to the rest of the C Suite C, to ensure that they are all aligned on the market effectively and understand the strategic objectives before doing research that could return with a strategy that does not align with these objectives. “We are very cautious to enter and say that we are trying to reflect the strategy, not to dictate the strategy,” said Connors.

Jen Ball, CMO for Franklin Templeton, said that it was exactly what she and her team had obtained from Boathouse. She said that Boathouse’s first movements were to connect all corners in marketing with marketing, due to the considerable changes that the company has suffered in the past five years – it is now a B2B financial services company working on private markets, ETFs and other commercial sections. It took a whole new set of messages, that Connors and the team helped her.

“I think that our EQ / IQ ratio is really high. We think a lot about the personalities behind the strategies. What is the chairman of the board of directors trying to achieve? What is at stake for the CEO and the CMO, in addition to the Qi Qi variables is the target, what is the right strategy,” said Connors. “Now that the industry is so excessive indexed to the IQ of IQ … They forget people behind strategies and dynamics. And we think so much of people behind the strategies and what suits them best, that they are starting to notice that we really care about the relationship against the transaction. And I think Aor is so on the transaction, not on the relationship. “

“It was not a marketing exercise. It was a whole business exercise that we lived, and everyone bought it. It was just, honest and authentic,” said Ball. “It was a much more strategic exercise that was much deeper, honestly, from the starting point. And this is what made it different – depth and inclusion, then the importance of connection with the company’s strategy, and what resonated from this strategy with customers. ”

The resulting work has delivered a “scale” of a campaign that has started in the United States but which is now developing in Asia and parts of Europe. Centered on the slogan “your trusted partner for the coming”, followed by a series of undermessage which has struck all the new areas in which the financial services company had extended.

The result so far? “We moved the dial on absolutely all the areas to which we hoped to move the dial in terms of the brand’s perception,” said Ball. “I just shared it with our CEO, and she was really satisfied with it.”

The CMO of the world real estate client said that she had worked with Connors to a certain extent since she met her in 2003, and in each company she was, Boathouse has always won her business, often beating larger agencies and Holdco stores. “At almost all the turns, John and Boathouse would win, and this growing agency would manage these very complex and enormous accounts and huge budgets,” said the CMO. “This is their approach to solving business problems – this is never the marketing solution.”

The CMO said that she had learned three key approaches from Connors that she applies to each marketing work she had:

1. Align marketing on the wider company
2. Follow the money
3. Understand leadership in order to translate their vision

“John has a unique ability to speak CEO and a strategic sense to identify the right strategies that are anchored in the company, but which really lend themselves to effective and very impactful solutions,” said the CMO.

All this translates into the spirit of Connors in: “If you use your equalizer and all your executive knowledge as prompts, no one can touch you.”

Color by number

If you have caught a pre-season football match or two, you know that America’s favorite sport, the NFL season is almost on us. But are there weak links in the league offensive line, the league may losing a footage? According to a survey of 1,000 consumers carried out in August by the Savanta market research company, aggressive travel in streaming and the increase in the profit cost of the game are at a price. Some strengths of the investigation:

• While 41% are now looking at football mainly via streaming services, 56% say they are frustrated by the exclusive NFL Games to certain streaming platforms;
• 69% report reducing assisted games Due to the increase in tickets, trips and concession fees
• Regarding the expense thresholds, 55% of Americans spend less than $ 250 per season on football expenses, including tickets, merch, streaming, food, trips and fantastic leagues; 27% additional spending $ 500 or more, 14% spend at least $ 1,000; 7% spend more than $ 2,500 and 3% of more than $ 5,000.
• In the service of good news, 49% of Americans say that playing time advertisements influence their purchasesWhile 48% declare that they are influenced by advertisements featuring famous football players.

Takeoff and landing

• WPP media marked his first big victory in 2025, landing MasterCardGlobal media strategy, planning and purchase and taking over from Dentsu’s Carat. The victory helps to explain why the WPP media resigned Paypal account earlier this year, which was recovered by Advertising. Mastercard would have spent some $ 180 million in the media in 2024.
• He will come as comfort for Carat That he kept VodafoneEmea affairs for the next three years from 2026, after an exam. Part of the mandate is for Carat to help the telecommunications brand take more media purchase internally.
• IPG Mediabrands And Acxiom launched a contextual advertising solution for CTV with Iris.tvCalled CTV contextual acxiom powered by IRIS_ID, which aims to align the announcements in the tone, the genre and the context of the visualized streaming content.
• Emphasis Social agency and influence acquired in the United States SuperdigitalOf which the team of 40 people will be folded in an accenture song. In other acquisition news, Gravity Global Acquired performance media agency Doctor of Marketing.
• The staff moves: Executive of the veteran agency Nick Brien was officially appointed CEO of Outfrous mediaFollowing a provisional role there … Stagwell appointed Margaret key its executive director of the Asia-Pacific region, as well as the CEO of Allison Asia…Fitzco upholstered Chris Wallrapp to be his new CEO, coming from the same position to Hill Holliday.

Direct quote

“We note that more and more retail media networks can play a fairly powerful lever that creates this closed loop targeting synergy, which looks like a more efficient media placement. All retail media networks cannot do it now, but more and more, they arrive at a place where some cannot.”

– Ron Amram, principal director of world media at Mars, speaking of the role of retail media in a broader media strategy. Amram will be expressed in retail advertising strategies on September 10.

Speed ​​reading

• Sam Bradley examined the adjustments of media agencies on paid research in light of the impact of zero click research thanks to the advances of the AI.
• Bradley also unpacked the use of AI by Kellanova to light up its marketing tactics, and the effects of the halo that these changes have on the agency costs it pays.
• I wrote on the way in which the acquisition by Podean de Commerce Canal announces a new consolidation among the agencies of “market” specialized in work with brands on Amazon and other commercial platforms.