MSQ’s Alternative Model For Modern Marketers

“We’re not trying to be a holding company, we’re trying to be an alternative to holding companies” states Peter Reid, CEO of MSQ, straight off the bat as he outlines the strategic direction of the business to meet the requirements of modern marketers.

After nearly 20 years with the business, joining when it was still known as Media Square, Reid took the reins in 2010 before it became private the following year. Today, MSQ operates 10 agencies and capabilities all under one P&L employing more than 1,850 people across 24 offices in Europe, North America, and Asia.

Among those agencies are the CX and Creative businesses The Gate, Big Spaceship and Stein B2B, brand experts Elmwood, PR, Social & Influencer agency Smarts, as well as strategic, media, commerce and tech offerings such as 26 PMX, Forge, Walk-In Media, Miri Growth and MSQ DX.

“We want to help the modern marketer,” he explains of the MSQ model, “Providing the right type of solution that has built-in data, built-in tech and now AI, all joined up with creativity,”

While it is headquartered in the UK, the company has been expanding internationally, with the US a key focus for growth where it employs a growing number of its staff - close to 500 people with 350 in New York alone. That’s alongside a foothold in Asia, and further growth areas across Europe with the CX and DX arms which now make up a third of the business and is set to continue to grow.

“We're a really good size where you can be agile, flexible, and responsive to scaled clients - actually get diverse talent together to solve a problem - so you can genuinely join up creative and media in a way that certainly I don't think calling yourself WPP Media and WPP Creative will achieve.”

The aspiration is to start to deliver $50m+ accounts within MSQ – even if Reid admits that won’t be the norm in the short term, but it is the journey he has embarked upon. "It isn't about being the biggest in the world, it's about having a credible presence in each market to offer clients the services they need."

A path for growth

As with every advertising boss, Reid sees growth coming from winning more pitches than losing, but he also cites other opportunities, such as international growth and building out MSQ DX, as other areas to focus on. While he believes the MSQ brand is on solid ground in the UK, the most vital aim is to work on larger scale projects to be found internationally moving forward.

To meet that ambition, US creative agency Big Spaceship was acquired last year, boasting previous client work for brands such as Chase, NFL, Mars Pedigree, Dairy Queen, Jet Blue, and Starbucks. And then there was Arke, the Atlanta-based DX agency that has worked with Chick-fil-A, Inspire Brands, Hersheypark, and Equifax.

Another deal completed last year saw M3 Labs, MSQ’s production company, bring in London-based agencies Precious Media and Wooshii offering global end-to-end AI and people-powered creative production and connected commerce services.

“We needed to deliver on the MSQ proposition, as well as scale, to gain access to those big strategic relationships with big clients and ideally doing big ticket creative platform work. What we've always found is, you might make more money in theory in tech and in content, but if it's not joined up with strong strategic and creative thinking, then you're not going to offer the value needed to drive brand momentum.”

The acquisitions, it is hoped, will help to unlock new opportunities with established clients in other parts of the business with the aim over the next 18 months/two years to achieve organic growth and potentially source further acquisitions to the international proposition.

“We hear brand marketers tell us that they particularly struggle with their mid-funnel activity and connecting it into commerce and sales. I've not seen anyone doing that as well as Precious does - so that's one area where we're looking to add value to many of our clients.”

Meanwhile, the evolving ability to deploy AI-enabled tools, such as creative operating system MSQ Assist developed in the UK, is also being sought increasingly in the US, Reid reveals.

Bringing together creativity and media

One of the major trends taking place across the agency landscape is a move to return media and creativity under one roof, with the former being where the larger budgets are found. According to Reid, combining creativity and media has always been important for MSQ, having never premised campaigns based on channel choices, focusing instead on delivering outcomes and efficiencies.

He sees AI tools - such as MSQ Growth Engine and MSQ Assist - as an enabler to deliver better outcomes for clients. MSQ Intelligence, for instance, launched earlier this year as a new central team dedicated to developing products, services, platforms and data capabilities that will power MSQ agencies, providing them with world-class tools and intelligence that would be difficult for them to build alone.

“I think to really believe in agency businesses over the next 15-or-20 years, as I do, you've got to believe that it's the power of creativity and the emotional connection between consumer and brand that is the thing that really makes a difference. If you don't believe that then you should put your money on one channel like Meta and let them automate the creative!,” he says.

Reid has always seen successful campaigns being those that feature “the right creative and messaging, built on the right emotional idea and served at the right time across the right channel.” This is something he feels AI offers as a new opportunity for MSQ to enable and achieve in a real-time, personalised manner.

A belief in agency brands

Reid is proud of the ethos and culture that has been built across MSQ, using the open plan environment of the Covent Garden offices in London as an example of how all the agencies and staff based there can interact without boundaries. He explains that through the open joining staircase between the two floors, there is a better connection throughout as people work on both their own agency clients and also shared MSQ clients.

“We've worked hard over the years to make sure people understand what each capability does, who their clients are, and that sort of thing. It's supported by the MSQ Share Scheme, in which around 200 senior members of staff have a stake in MSQ. It’s like a partnership scheme for those who create value for the group, or when you reach a role, you then get offered the opportunity to be part of the share scheme.”

He adds that it’s important to remain lean as a business to “create enablement” and maintain one culture, which is not something easily replicated by other ad companies where agencies are encouraged to build their own individual ethos. Within that, the role of agency brands is vital to attracting talent – particularly creative talent – and to clients that buy into the culture and abilities of a multidisciplinary group.

And while there is a desire for clients to employ MSQ on an end-to-end basis, Reid is realistic that many clients continue to come to it to work with individual agencies specifically.

“We create flexibility and choice for clients, not just force feed them but offer a model that suits their needs. 70 per cent of MSQ’s clients work with more than one of our capabilities, and this is increasing. So I'm still just as happy with someone like Mars, who we work across multiple brands on a global basis, being served by Elmwood in branding and strategic design. That's just as important as, someone like the Chartered Financial Accountants, which is our largest multi account in the US, where we've got seven or eight disciplines all working together. By having the agency structure as well as the MSQ structure, you get the best of both worlds and that becomes more like a series of front doors without separate silos or companies.”

He concedes that by retaining individual brand names over creating MSQ Creative or MSQ Design means that the company must work harder on brand building across each piece, however he believes this approach enables the group to attract and retain the best talent and that it’s more about access to the best talent for clients, than anything else.

In the near future, it’s the size of the opportunity in the US that Reid is excited by more through the top tier executives running its operations there. He cites Stein global CEO Kate MacNevin and Elmwood’s global CEO Daniel Bins as well as US president Aaron Lang, and now Taryn Crouthers, CEO of Big Spaceship.

“I genuinely don't think you'd have a better bench of talent across disciplines anywhere in the world, with that ability to actually come together and deliver for clients,” he says of the team.