Tag's CEO David Kassler previously spent a decade at the helm of private equity-backed companies such as EMI Music, Phones 4u and Deluxe Entertainment.
Below, he shares some of the things he's learned along the way.
What makes your company unique?
As well as listening to and supporting our clients, we are willing to challenge the status quo and encourage them to transform the way they work. This ‘challenger’ mentality is deep within our DNA and drives our strategy, client relationships and of course our team recruitment and development.
Right now, many brands are trying to reduce the number of agencies on their rosters. We’ve made ourselves a competitive and creative single port of call for brands seeking a full-service, end-to-end offering for global creative production and sourcing.
What's the secret to winning new business?
Success is largely based on listening to what clients are saying and how the modern customer journey is transforming towards mobile and e-commerce. While the large holding companies are still ‘heroing’ the TV commercial, at Tag we are focused on the end-to-end customer journey in order to deliver creativity across all channels.
How important is agency culture?
It was Peter Drucker who first said, “culture eats strategy for breakfast” and yes, it’s critical to us here at Tag. When it comes to creativity in today’s world, culture helps us define the future as we collectively focus on taking a creative idea and turning it into reality across multiple channels and geographies, all driven throughout by data.
How do you keep morale high?
It’s important to give people a sense of direction when things don’t always go according to plan. You can’t micromanage people, you must set priorities – which in our case is obsession with customer service. We also want to help our people to understand where the market is going and how we are responding to investing and transforming for growth.
How important is recruitment?
We look for people who aim high, take pride in their work, enjoy being part of a global team and love delivering outstanding work for their clients – then we give them the tools and freedom to do it. Although we have recruited widely from outside the industry, we also greatly value experience within both our business and other marketing roles – both agency and client-side.
And some final advice for aspiring creatives?
Standing out and being effective in this crowded media landscape is no longer just about your wonderful creative idea – it’s how it translates into a great customer experience or insight on a tiny screen on a busy train – the new generation of creatives need to start with that paradigm.
