Converge – Marketing Reporting Automation for Agencies and Brands

Calming the Chaos of Agency Operations

Karl Sakas, Agency Consultant and Executive Coach, Sakas & Company, Raleigh, NC

Karl Sakas is an Agency Consultant and Executive Coach at Sakas & Company where he consults with, coaches, and trains marketing agency owners struggling with various challenges related to their teams, their clients, and their services. His focus? To guide agency owners through risky decision-making, help them overcome constraints, enable them to grow profitably to the next level, and to make them “better bosses.”

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Innovating with Imagination and Intelligence

Paul McDowall and Catherine Clark, Founding Partners, ClarkMcDowall (NYC)

Paul McDowall and Catherine Clark were neighbors when they founded ClarkMcDowall, a 21-year-old agency that with “intelligence and imagination” architects growth for “visionary companies.” Originally starting with big clients Catherine “inherited” from her previous employer, the agency had to put in effort to bring on the startups and mid-size companies that keep an agency nimble, fresh, and entrepreneurial – where there is a higher chance of “getting stuff done.”

Removing Friction

Ken Magma Marshall, CGO and Managing Partner, RevenueZen (Portland, OR)

Ken Magma Marshall is Chief Growth Officer and Managing Partner at RevenueZen, an agency focused on helping high-growth-oriented B2B, SaaS, and professional service brands generate more demand and leads through SEO, content, and LinkedIn . . . to get real leads that actually convert.

Moving Quickly

Josy Amann, Co-founder, Media Matters Worldwide (headquarters: San Francisco, CA)

Josy Amann is Co-founder at Media Matters Worldwide, an analytics-driven, brand-power-focused omnichannel media buying, and planning agency serving B2B and B2C clientele. In 2005, Josy and her co-founder left a large agency where they had been providing media buying and planning to start Media Matters – with no money and a two-pronged plan – to get their own clients and to freelance with other agencies. Their first client was a “gift” from their prior agency. Josy says referrals sustained the agency for the first ten years. In 2019, MMWW hired a leadership team to help scale the business, to be able to serve larger clients and to meet the variety of technological demands. Completely remote from day one, MMWW tripled its employees from 20 to 60 in two years – during Covid!

Push-Pull Transformations Drive Rocket-Ship Growth

Julie Koepsell, President – North America, Horizontal Digital (Minneapolis, MN)

Julie Koepsell came into Horizontal Digital as President of the North America division in December 2020 at a time when, due to Covid, the company was “fully remote.” Horizontal Digital is a 17-year-old global, “experience forward” consultancy that puts people at the center of its efforts by creating deeper, end-to-end-connected, seamless, relevant, and personal customer relationships that boost client ROI. Because Horizontal is a boutique consultancy, clients get a “very high touch experience.”

Capitalizing on Opportunity and Fixing What’s Broken

Ryan Frederick, Principal, AWH (Dublin, OH)

Ten years ago, Ryan Frederick, became a partner at AWH, a now 26-year-old firm that builds net new software products, solves data problems and integrates systems across platforms and products (phones, the web, Internet of Things [IoT] devices).

Storm Survival Strategies

Angie and Will Scott, COO and CEO and co-founders, Search Influence (New Orleans, LA)

In 2006, Angie and Will Scott, COO and CEO and co-founders, started Search Influence as a technically oriented search, social, and digital marketing agency, supported with tracking and attribution, and demonstrating value across very complex systems. Challenged at the beginning to find people with the needed skills, the agency outsourced its production work and developed an intensive training cycle and “robust” documentation for new hires. Will claims that, to this day, the agency’s internal-facing superpower is training and education.

Holistic Alignment and When Do We Stop Lying?

Scott Couvillon, CEO and Executive Strategy Director, Trumpet (New Orleans, LA)

Scott Couvillon is CEO and Executive Strategy Director at Trumpet Advertising, an agency that strives to create purpose-aligned, believable ads. Scott says that companies succeed with their advertising, not only because their creative product promotion is compelling, but more so when the ads “compel an honest connection between a person and a brand.” Scott says there is a lot of talk in the advertising industry about purpose. What is more important is “What do you do with it once you’ve got it.”

CRISIS!

Mary Patrick, CEO and Managing Partner, Jasculca Terman Strategic Communications (Chicago, IL)

Mary Patrick is CEO and Managing Partner at Jasculca Terman (JT) Strategic Communications, a 40-year-old public affairs firm that provides issue education and crisis management and builds support for its clients’ controversial legislative, regulatory, and public policy issues.

How Best to Invest when the Brand is Bland

Bill Durrant, President at Exverus Media (Los Angeles, CA)

Bill Durrant is President at Exverus Media, a paid-media agency (TV ads, print advertising, sponsorships, and other types of media) that serves culture-creating, growth-stage brands. The agency’s focus is not so much on big-budget, long-term brand building as it is on consulting with clients and recommending “how best to invest” to produce significant, trackable, and measurable short- to medium-term results.