Jared Belsky on agency growth, ethics, and the mid-market
Plus: Our thoughts on Publicis’ 21% 2024 churn rate, its latest acquisition in sports, and new ANA data on AOR tenure
Agency Business is brought to you by Brian Wieser’s Madison and Wall, in collaboration with Olivia Morley's FusionFront Media. We publish new podcast episodes every Monday at 6 a.m. Eastern.
Hello and welcome to Agency Business for the week of May 5, 2025. Episode 20 is available now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen.
Jared Belsky, co-founder and CEO of Acadia, joins us this week to talk about building a 300-person mid-market agency that’s privately held, people-first, and built to grow without outside capital or even a single VP.
Acadia’s business model followed Jared’s experience leading 360i, (now part of Dentsu Creative.) We discuss why Acadia’s structure looks different from legacy holding companies, how the agency has maintained just 9% unwanted turnover, and why he says no “three times a week” to misaligned opportunities.
Jared is one of the industry’s most vocal critics of principal-based media buying, a practice he calls “reprehensible.” In this one, we debate the practice and Jared explains why he advises CMOs to push for greater transparency in how media dollars are spent.
In our news chat this week, we discuss Publicis’ reported 21% staff churn; the company’s acquisition of Portland-based sports agency Adopt; and new ANA data on agency-of-record tenure, and what it does and doesn’t reveal about how clients are structuring agency relationships today.
News of the week: Discussed in Episode 20
Publicis acquires sports agency Adopt
MW: Although this is a relatively small acquisition, I think it’s worth paying attention to because it highlights the growing importance of sports to the broader marketing ecosystem and thus to agencies and marketing services. WPP was on to something when they invested in Bruin Sports Capital, but unfortunately for WPP, it exited that relationship and many of its investments in the space in 2019.
FFM: Agencies across the board are sharpening their expertise in sports marketing, which isn’t losing momentum, a la Stagwell’s success with Sport Beach. We’ll see more acquisitions like this soon, I’m sure. Notably, Adopt will join Publicis Connected Media alongside Epsilon, Publicis Media, PMX, and another recent acquisition, Influential. I’ll be watching how Publicis continues to organize its assets and thinking about what that structure says about the holding company’s future plans. Right now it points to Publicis rounding out a media offering inclusive of specialty practices like sports and creator marketing, and tied together with Epsilon data.
MW: Publicis appears to be the only agency group now regularly disclosing employee turnover, which is arguably one of the most important metrics we should care about in a professional services business. Even if the number is stable, it’s useful to know!
FFM: The 21% stat looks pretty good. I assume Publicis is retaining its staff because its business is healthy. With growth far surpassing its peers’, the group appears a stable place to work within in a notoriously unstable industry.
MW: Although there are lots of caveats to consider — sample sizes, response biases that might favor smaller agencies, etc. — my initial reaction to the idea that the average tenure of the largest clients at integrated full-service agencies are double the length of the tenures for the largest clients at media agencies was that there must not be very many integrated agency relationships anymore. At the same time, I can imagine that for the smaller agencies that probably accounted for the bulk of responses to the survey, this could very well be accurate. Also, there’s a big advantage to consider when it comes to bundling services: If you have multiple products that clients depend on, you’re less likely to see churn. This is why, for example, your pay TV company wants you to take broadband access, wireless phone services and home security as part of one bundle. The same should be true for agency services.
FFM: Full-service offerings are just stickier. Consider how very large marketers sometimes consolidate their business with a single holding company partner in an effort to trim their agency rosters. For marketers, there’s a good side and a bad side to this arrangement. The good side? Scale, expertise, bundled costs. The bad? The more a single agency does, the harder it is to keep the wheels moving in the immediate term if the relationship sours.
Up next on Agency Business:
Next week’s guest is Reid Carr, CEO of Red Door Interactive. Watch for the episode next Monday at 6 a.m. Eastern.
As always, Agency Business is not pay-to-play. We welcome guest pitches, especially from women and leaders of color in the industry. Send us a note if you’d like to come on the show or learn about sponsorship opportunities.