The Digitas Reset

When Digitas UK appointed Anne Stagg last summer, she arrived into a business in motion – and, as it turned out, into a summer party just 17 hours before. It wasn’t the kind of carefully staged first week most agency CEOs get. Instead, it meant her introduction to the agency was immediate, informal, and in front of almost everyone she would shortly be leading.

Standing up to speak that early might have felt abrupt in another context, but for Stagg it also offered something valuable: a real-time read on the energy and ambition sitting within the business she had just joined. That sense of motion was part of the appeal. As she explains: “I’d sworn I wouldn’t go into another holdco. I wanted to build something with more autonomy, in a part of the market that felt open to reinvention. But Sam Hawkey [Digitas EMEA CEO] persuaded me there was a real opportunity at Digitas: a brilliant reputation, brilliant clients, great work and incredible talent, but without real clarity around what the agency stood for. Digitas had become the best-kept secret.”

Stagg arrived with more than three decades of experience spanning data, CRM, and customer experience. Before joining Digitas, she spent six years at Dentsu, latterly as UK CEO of Merkle. She also sat on the Merkle European leadership team. And her previous leadership roles at Indicia, Communisis, More2, and Experian gave her a front-row seat to the evolution of customer marketing long before AI became the industry's defining conversation.

For Stagg, the Digitas opportunity came with considerable scale. With just under 500 people across the UK business, the UK agency was already one of the largest digital agencies, but one whose profile in the wider market has lagged behind its capability.

Defining Digitas

“There was a real piece of work to define the sweet spot for Digitas, both within the group and in the wider market,” she says. “Externally, people didn’t fully understand what we did, and internally there was confusion too. People would say: ‘You do what we do, don’t you?’”

That ambiguity wasn’t a reflection of capability. The issue has been that of coherence and a sense of what it stood for in a market being reshaped by data, AI, and the collapse of traditional channel boundaries. For Stagg, that makes the opportunity for the business more compelling, not less.

“What appealed to me [about this job] was the opportunity to build an agency fit for the future. Because of our size and the mix of skills we have, we can pivot faster than many organisations. We can put different kinds of brilliant minds together and create something genuinely distinctive.”

Very quickly, a clearer positioning began to emerge within the Publicis Groupe ecosystem: Digitas would focus on CRM and customer experience - the “owned” layer of the customer journey - sitting alongside media and creative but operating with its own distinct logic.

“We are the CRM and customer experience part of Publicis. If media agencies are talking about paid, earned, shared, and owned, we are the owned piece – helping clients maximise customer value and deliver connected experiences that engage people properly.”

That framing has since become more than internal alignment; it has started to show up in how clients respond to the work itself.

Role of creativity in customer experience

The shift, she argues, is in where creativity enters the process. Her chief creative officer Carren O’Keefe has often said how Digitas is a network that advocates for modern creativity- or “creativity with a capital C".

This is a sentiment shared by Stagg. “What clients increasingly respond to is the fact that we bring creativity into the conversation right from the beginning, not as decoration at the end. But we also know how to operationalise that through people, data, AI and technology.”

One client outcome crystallised that approach: instead of resistance to ambition, there was alignment around it. “They basically said: ‘If this is where the market is heading eventually, we may as well make the leap with someone who’s already ahead.’”

That combination of creativity and systems thinking is also visible in Digitas’ growing AI-enabled work. Stagg points to a recent financial services project as an example of how the agency operates in practice. The team used AI tools, client data, and social intelligence to generate more than 60 potential propositions, before refining them through synthetic testing into a handful of viable territories. “The interesting thing about the AI work we’re doing is that it still starts with creativity,” she says. “That process simply wouldn’t have been possible at that speed or scale without AI. But AI didn’t replace the creative thinking, it enhanced the iterative process.”

A similar philosophy runs through its approach to major builds, including work for Cadillac, where speed, scalability, and long-term customer experience were designed in from the start. Built in just 27 days for the luxury car brand's Formula 1 (F1) launch, the platform was conceived not as a campaign site but as a digital home that could evolve throughout the racing season. By combining creative thinking with flexible architecture, Digitas created an experience designed to grow with the brand and its audience over time.

Rewiring Digitas for growth

Organisationally, Digitas now sits within Connected Media at Publicis, a move Stagg says reflects reality more than reinvention. “The change in our proposition didn’t come from the move, but the shift from Creative into Connected Media reflected the fact that even our most creative outputs are fundamentally data-led.”

Internally, transformation has meant strengthening the leadership team, introducing new ways of working and simplifying how the agency presents itself. Since arriving, Stagg has deliberately recruited senior talent to accelerate that shift.

Among the appointments are former Merkle and Dentsu CXM chief solutions officer Stephen Derbyshire as chief transformation officer; former Ogilvy managing partner Rebecca Dennis as chief client officer; and former T&P creative innovation director Dan Northcote-Smith, who has joined as head of intelligent creative (a newly-created role) to help lead Digitas' generative and agentic AI capabilities alongside O'Keefe.

But redefining the proposition was only part of a much bigger challenge. Embedding that change across a business of nearly 500 people has required just as much attention to culture as capability. One of the most significant moments, she says, was pausing the agency for a full day to focus on AI upskilling.

“We had sessions for every level of confidence and understanding… I deliberately attended the beginner sessions myself to show that it’s ok not to have all the answers yet.” It is this mix of candour and momentum that has helped reshape internal energy. The agency, Stagg adds, is now seeing tangible commercial impact.

“Our pipeline is now worth more than 15 times what it was last September… we are winning more than our fair share.”

But perhaps the most telling shift is not commercial, but cultural: a clearer sense of what Digitas is, and who it is for. “We now run monthly town halls, AI confidence drop-ins, CEO sessions, and regular showcases of great work and pitch wins. A big part of it has simply been bringing some energy and excitement back into the business.”

For Stagg, the task ahead is less about reinvention and more about amplification of clarity and confidence. Or, as that first night at the summer party suggested, about stepping into the room early, and making the most of it.

The World According to Anne Stagg

Creative Salon: When you switch off from work, what helps you recharge or what sparks inspiration outside the industry?

Weekends in the campervan are my reset, usually down in Southwold. Sitting outside as the sun goes down brings a bit of perspective.

I’m also really drawn to a sports movie! Films like Field of Dreams and Rocky, but more so the thinking behind teams and performance. The idea of marginal gains, that “does it make the boat go faster?” mindset, and even things like how an F1 team operates. That whole approach to leadership really fascinates me.

What’s been the best CRM gig you’ve ever seen a brand pull off?

I’m really interested in fast-growing brands in health, beauty and nutrition right now. They’re putting the app experience at the centre, and building community around that.

More broadly, it’s how newer brands are able to leapfrog traditional models and go straight into more integrated, digital experiences.

What’s your all-time favourite example of a brand getting customer experience absolutely spot on?

Aviva stands out. They recognise that when you take out something like car insurance, you may also have pensions or health with them.

They connect that experience in a way that feels seamless as you move through different life stages, and do it in a way that’s easy to understand despite the complexity.

Which part of agency life still gives you the biggest buzz?

It’s the unexpected moments. I remember a pitch where someone was ill on the morning, and a junior team member stepped in for their first pitch.

The client made her feel very comfortable, and when we won, they highlighted that we were clearly a business that gives people opportunities.

Seeing someone do something they’re nervous about, and do it well, still gives me a real buzz.

Leadership can feel very different today compared to even five years ago. How has your own leadership style evolved over the course of your career? If your leadership style had a soundtrack, what would be on it?

I’m much clearer now on what I’m good at, and I’m comfortable with what I’m not. That means I can build the right team around me and show up in the best way.

It’s about being more authentic and creating space for others to do the same. And it has to be 'Don’t Stop Believin’ by Journey. It sums up what it takes to execute a plan, and takes me back to singing it at Karaoke with a former boss in Tokyo.