A Reverse Holding Company? Worldwide Partners Brings Clients Independents at Scale

“Clients are realising they can’t keep cost-cutting to meet their numbers and effectively rebuild for a post-pandemic world,” John says. “They’re understanding they need to grow brands again. Many of them realise that to do it they need a new kind of full-service agency solution based on specialised expertise and collaboration that can deliver the scale they need.”

Many clients are bringing services in-house and complementing capabilities with external partnerships. John tells LBB they’re vetting agencies for expertise first, not simply services, and looking to handpick expertise to solve precise business problems.

“Last year we received a request from a client in the UK for an agency in the US with travel and tourism experience, a government affairs practice, and an office in Washington, D.C.,” John says. “We had it because we’ve built depth and diversification of expertise by capability, by industry vertical, and by geography.” 

While that may sound a lot like a holding company, John says Worldwide Partners is the opposite – a reverse holding company in effect. Worldwide Partners doesn’t own agencies; rather, the agencies own the network. John reports to a Board of Directors, 10 agency leaders from around the world, and together they set the direction for the network. He says that opens the door to the kind of collaboration clients need. 

“We were founded on the premise that collaboration drives growth for clients and agencies, whereas holding companies were founded on the idea that acquisition drives growth for shareholders,” he says. “Holding companies can deliver scale and diverse skills sets, but diversification alone doesn’t translate to the integration and agility clients are demanding.”

By delivering the behaviours clients increasingly value in independent agencies at scale, John says, Worldwide Partners makes brands faster and more adaptable. “Clients want direct access to top people working on their businesses,” he says. “They want creative problem-solving without layers. And they want their growth to be the only incentive. We give them all of that.”

While all the agencies in the Worldwide Partners network remain resolutely independent, they work interdependently to propel clients’ businesses. John says this fluid structure lets brands get the best out of more agencies than ever before.

“Clients need acceleration and integration, and that takes collaboration,” he says. “Collaboration is the new marketing currency. Our agencies work together because they choose to, based on trust, shared values and mutual respect. You can’t mandate that spirit. Clients get a new way to scale without the silos and friction that occur in the conventional holding company model.”

“If you’re bringing someone in who’s an expert in UX design and can partner them with an art director, and then a data analyst, there’s going to be a very different outcome than with a traditional brief that goes through the strategic planner who sets the strategy and cascades it down the chain,” he says. “We can create faster, more relevant, and more fluid solutions because we bring such a diverse set of perspectives to an assignment.”

John acts as a coordinator for clients, pulling together partner agencies for pitches and projects. While calls for support come in routinely from partners, John increasingly fields client requests for multi-specialty and multi-region solutions. He’s in daily contact with partner agencies around the world, including the likes of Five by Five in the UK and Australia, The Shipyard in the US, Rosbeef in France, Propeg in Brazil and Hylink in China.

And perhaps it’s a sign of the times changing then that now when an agency tells a client they can’t provide a particular service but can team with a partner that can, it isn’t seen as a mark of weakness. 

“Clients have been burned by agencies who have said they can do everything but couldn’t,” John says. “Now they appreciate the transparency when an agency comes forward and says, ‘Although we don’t do that in house, we have a partner through our network. We can deliver and integrate that solution in a seamless and integrated fashion.’”  

One success story is the work between Odysseus Arms and R&R Partners. Last year, Odysseus Arms won full-service pitches for both Farmers Insurance, and the fin-tech Self Financial. The 30-person creative agency brought in 350-person partner R&R Partners to handle media. 

“There aren’t many environments where you'd see a 350-person, full-service shop play a supporting role to a smaller 30-person creative one, and yet it works seamlessly,” says John. 

Localisation is an area we see causing issues across adland time and time again. A misjudged translation or an ill-thought campaign rollout can have a colossal impact on a brand’s credibility, and agencies must be focused on the detail. 

“Simply put, if you are a global brand working in a global marketplace, your product or service is more likely to succeed when it’s customised to the unique audience dynamics in each local market,” says John, who tells us that we can’t keep focusing on standardisation. 

“Standardisation without localisation leaves money on the table,” he says, “it’s a waste of marketing spend.” 

He points out how even country-specific campaigns have got it wrong in recent times. “Take Brazil, for example,” he says. “A population of over 200 million people living in a country similar in land mass to China and the US. As such, there are unique differences from state-to-state that must be taken into consideration. Yet many brands and holding company agencies take a national approach to marketing, because it’s ‘more efficient.’ I was talking with a peer recently who lives in Sao Paulo and was traveling to Salvador and saw a billboard for Uber Black. The thing is, there are no Uber Blacks in Salvador.” 

That’s just one example of when brands and agencies get it wrong. Whereas holding companies are consolidating to regional hubs in major business markets, John says, Worldwide Partners focuses on breadth and diversity of agencies within each region. For example, Worldwide Partners agency Propeg in Brazil has six offices covering each of the country’s micro cultures. What works in San Paolo may not work in Salvador.  

“Today great marketing gets developed from the market, not for the market,” John says. “You get a higher degree of control from an agency structure that allows reach into the broadest markets, and the ability to filter those insights into feeding a global brand strategy.” 

What if a CMO is wary of moving away from a centralised, global marketing model? 

“I understand how some clients can be hesitant to turn over the reins to local market agencies and teams,” says John. “If that’s the case, start one market at a time. Set aside the grand orchestration of locations worldwide, and pilot a program in one market where native teams can court local customers completely in their own language.

“Start in a market where you have a long way to go, so the difference will be obvious,” he says. “If you’re a category leader, go where you’re bottom of the rung. If you’re a challenger brand, go where you see the biggest upside. Give it at least six months, ideally a year. Test, adapt, win, and only then look to expand.”

“Our perspective is that global marketing has to be driven from the ground up; not at the expense of efficiency, but in the name of effectiveness.”