Wavemaker Global Leadership Series

CANNES — The construct of “The Four Ps of Marketing” has been in circulation for some decades now. But old needs a reboot. In this video interview with Beet.TV, Wavemaker global chief client officer Aaron Smith redefines the “Ps” for a new era. “The old ways of building relevance no longer work,” he says. “To really […]

CANNES — Brands and agencies have more data thane ver before – so why is it getting more difficult to prove the real outcomes of marketing? In this video interview with Beet.TV, Wavemaker global head of strategy Stuart Sullivan-Martin says proving value is getting harder, not easier, as two imperatives of marketers come together in […]

Almost 12 months to the day after Group M merged its MEC and Maxus agencies, the combined entity finds itself starting up just as everyone talks about the prospect of the sun setting on ad agencies. But Wavemaker, which started up in September, is responding to the talk of agency disintermediation with a clear plan. […]

It was one of the latest steps in a series of ad agency reconfigurations. But what are the founding philosophies of Wavemaker, the agency formed from the merger of Group M’s MEC and Maxus? In this video interview with Beet.TV, global CEO Tim Castree offers three pillars… Marriage of media content and technology: “Media is not just […]

There are “point solutions” – and then there are “what’s the point?” solutions? In ad-tech, many software vendors are risking ending up in the last category, as a dizzying array of function-specific tools risks confusing buyers. That is according to one agency boss communicating how technological complexity is actually working against buyers and their vendors. […]

As Tim Castree prepares for his role as Jury President of the Media Lions for the upcoming Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, he hopes to see entries that reflect how brands have effectively married creativity and context. His first-time judging gig comes after the Cannes Lions reached a tipping point in 2017 as some […]

Tim Castree likes to think about audiences “as the nests that sit inside that larger purchase journey context to opportunity.” Until you can completely understand those consumers, you cannot target them to fulfill those opportunities. Wavemaker uses a two-step process that begins with identifying “the gaps, barriers, challenges, opportunities” associated with the purchase journey, the […]

Consumer purchases aren’t made in a vacuum. Which is why understanding all of the variables that precede actual purchases is the key to unlocking the consumer journey. “The idea that you go somewhere, you decide you want something, you make that purchase and then you’re done is incorrect. Inherently it just doesn’t make sense. It […]

Creativity in media is less about pushing one big message out to lots of people than it is generating conversations with consumers at every step of their purchase journey, says David Gaines, Chief Strategy Officer, Wavemaker US. “We’re moving away, I would argue, from media planning and saying ‘well, we actually need a content strategy,’” […]

Few people would contend that the modern consumer journey leading to purchases of products and services is easy to understand. But for Wavemaker, it’s a distinct way to both differentiate itself from other agencies while helping brand marketers cope with fragmentation and focus on optimizing the right things. This is why Wavemaker’s “principal and defining […]

When you’re fashioning what’s designed to be a cutting-edge marketing agency, it’s good to know what not to do. One example is not trying to recreate what a creative agency does but being flexible when it comes to deciding who produces content for clients. “We’re set up to be super flexible,” says Noah Mallin, Head […]

The traditional consumer purchase “funnel” doesn’t carry much weight with new marketing agency Wavemaker. “A lot of communication agencies out there look at the purchase journey as a funnel and really it’s not that whatsoever. It’s actually quite cyclical,” says Derek Bhopalsingh, VP, Digital, Wavemaker Canada. The new GroupM agency that launched in the U.S. […]

How do you reboot an agency to take on more of marketers’ problems in a world where consumer change is fast and furious? In the case of GroupM’s Wavemaker, it’s thinking far beyond simply combining agencies Maxus and MEC. “It has to be more than a merger. If all we did was take two great […]