“A good idea can come from anywhere”

In our final interview of the first ‘Power of Agency Brand’ series in conversation with some of the top leaders in the industry, Jen Berry, UK CEO at Digitas, talks to us about people, culture and positive impact.

We hear all about the heritage of the strong Digitas agency brand, how its name originates from digital and veritas, meaning digital truth and Jen takes us through how the agency used to be culture spreaders but are now heading towards becoming culture makers as the era of digital has shaped the industry’s clients, talent and consumers in ‘formidable ways’.

Along with Digitas’ values and vision, we get some clear advice on how other agency leaders can build up their own agency brands. From being adaptable and flexible, to tapping into culture.

Watch the full interview for all Jen’s top tips and advice on the power of agency brands:

Power of Agency Brands interview series

As the agency landscape continues to shift, change and become more complex and the industry grapples with a state of permacrisis, we set out to distil the power of agency brands: why every agency should dedicate time to developing their brand to cut through the noise, win big and just how they can go about building it.

As part of this, we’ve been chatting to some of the top agencies in the industry to get their thoughts, insight and future plans. Our own Stephanie Nattu has interviewed agency leaders about their own approach to building a strong agency brand, why they personally think it’s important to build up their brands, which other agency brands they admire and more.

You can visit the Power of Agency Brands hub here to check out the other interviews.

Interview transcript

Steph: Hi I'm Stephanie Nattu, Associate Board Director and Business Director at Creativebrief. Welcome to another episode of the agency leader interview series. Today we have Jen Berry CEO of Digitas. So to get us started tell us a little bit about your agency brand and proposition.

Jen: So, Steph simply I'd say our vision, mission and brand is to harness the power of connection, to create positive impact every day and I think connections can take on many different forms. So think about connecting people and brands, think about a more connected consumer experience, connecting technology, data, creativity but no matter what the connection is it's all in service of impact. That impact is around commercial, societal impact, so we might be talking to clients about growth, about loyalty, finding new audiences and it means that every consumer touch point is an opportunity for impact. So an opportunity to sell, to create a community, to create an awesome experience.

Last thing, it's not just about today it's about the future and I'm really really excited about our Unicorn Labs which is powered by a partnership with Next Tech Girls and that allows us not only to give high school girls more opportunities for careers in tech which obviously we need more girls in tech but it also allows us to tap into those voices of the next generation for our clients.

Steph: Lovely. So I'll challenge you, how would you describe your agency in three words?

Jen: Okay so this is really difficult. I went straight to the quote of 'I wanted to write you a short letter but I didn't have enough time, so I wrote a long one' so three words, first of all people, second of all unicorn effect and I'm going to slip one in, impact.

Steph: Why is it important to continue to build your agency brand?

Jen: Look, I think it couldn't be more important for us as Digitas right now. I think historically we've had a humility with our brand, which I love but that has meant that we haven't always talked about what we do. For example Digitas is made of two words digital and veritas and that means digital truth and I think that’s true to our heritage. Digital truth used to be that we were almost culture spreaders I think now we're culture makers and I think you know the era of digital has shaped our clients, our talent, our consumers in formidable ways and that means that we as an agency and as a brand are in a fairly unique place to guide our clients now and in the future. So I think it's on us to make sure that they understand what we stand for and how we can help them.

Steph: In your opinion, what is it that makes up a strong agency brand?

Jen: I think a lot of things but you know if you go down to the purer sense, you need to be clear, you need to be memorable. But it's not just about a logo it's not just about positioning, for me it's about culture, it's about people and so having incredible talent making the agency a place where they want to work, having a place where clients want to actually work with you and hopefully doing awesome work - I think that's what agency brands should be about.

Steph: And how do you harness that?  How do you create that? Because culture always changes and moves doesn't it and it's just how do you create that at the top you know from where you're sitting?

Jen: Yeah I think you need to be adaptable, I think you need to be really flexible as well like you just said the pace of the industry is so fast right so I think you can't be finite, for me again it comes back to people. You probably know all roads lead to humans and people and I think we're in an inflexion point as we think about leadership, it used to be very much you have your c-suite and they set the vision and leadership was top down. I think I'm going to be my best and our agency is going to be our best if we find ways to tap into the voices of the next generation. So some of our younger colleagues are more used to being in the digital space and to be honest probably know more about the digital space than me, and it's about leaders taking that sort of next-wave, and taking those voices enabling them with the context and the experience that hopefully we do bring as more senior leaders. So I love that I believe a great idea can come from anywhere, I love saying yes, so yeah I see that as how we're going to bring our agency to the future.

Steph: Is there a difference compared to say 10 years ago in terms of what makes up a strong agency brand today?

Jen: I personally believe so I think we are obviously in this evolved world of digital, I think previously as agencies the simplicity of a message and just being able to sell the brand I think now we need to be able to prove it there's complexity of landscape that we need to navigate with our clients and I think we need to be able to get their confidence that we can execute flawlessly and that we can guide them towards the future.

Steph: What are your plans for the rest of the year to continue to build your strong agency brand?

Jen: A lot so I'd say you know I've been here now for eight months and there's been a lot of time spent working through what is our vision and our proposition which I've shared with you and now it's about us shouting from the rooftops. To be honest so really going out there in the marketplace communicating what we are, what we all are about the great work that we do and I'd say just keep on doing great work and I'd also say keep on looking at how we need to evolve from a capability perspective to make sure that we're guiding our clients in the right way.

Steph: And is there one thing from a PR and a profiling aspect that you're wanting to nail in the next couple of months?

Jen: I think from a PR perspective it really is understanding that we are the agency that can truly deliver on a connective experience but it's all in service of impact so we're going to be talking to our clients around how do we truly create commercial impact how do we truly create societal impact and by the way we have incredible talent and that's what's going to drive us forward.

Steph: Which agency do you most admire and why?

Jen: So I'm going to start off by saying I love the Nike have you heard the Nike philosophy they don't look at Adidas because they just do what they do because it's right for them and I absolutely have that belief and I think you know us as Digitas are really lucky in terms of the amazing tools and talent that we have at our disposal but if I was going to name one brand that's stood out to me over the years it's definitely Wieden+Kennedy. Being at the culture and influence driving change in the world how can you say no to that and obviously they've built iconic work over the years as well.

Steph: Thank you Jen.

Jen: Thank you this has been so fun.