FCB's Low-Key Data Division Reveals the Future Direction of the Creative Agency Industry

The creative crisis has become a topic of ongoing discussion in the marketing industrycontinuously discussed. Advertising agencies are facing a wave of disruption, and their pressure is intensifying as business fundamentals shift further from large-scale brand-building creativity toward performance marketing. As creative agencies try to shed their reputation as technological laggards and seek to reignite growth, new strategies are gradually gaining popularity—but with a steep learning curve.

Customer relationship management (CRM) and certifications on platforms such as Salesforce—previously unattractive to creatives who disliked direct marketing—have gained attention amid this upheaval. CRM haswon the favor of consumer-facing CMOs, who seek services related to first-party data to address the growing problem of signal loss.

"CRM provides an extremely rich understanding of audiences, which helps drive data-informed creativity," said Jay Pattisall, Vice President and Principal Analyst at Forrester Research. "(Creatives) are arguably the last agency type to truly pursue this strategy."

FCB/Six, a division of Foote, Cone & Belding, has won a series of new business and recently expanded to regions such as India,which are becoming important future agency battlegrounds. FCB/Six's winning streak—reflected in 15% revenue growth in 2023—benefits from the overlooked value proposition valued by this Interpublic Group agency: bringing creative thinking into some of the drier areas of conversion-focused marketing, including Salesforce. The group has not disclosed specific revenue figures.

Analysts believe FCB/Six reflects a shift in industry trends: amid changing CMO demands, leaders in the creative field must adapt or face contraction. Clients include Stellantis, parent of Jeep, supermarket chain Sobeys, QuickBooks, and Škoda Auto. Earlier this year, FCB/Six was appointed as the CRM agency for Mazda Canada.

"FCB/Six has done an excellent job combining creativity with data," said Greg Paull, co-founder and principal of independent consultancy R3, in an email. "Because CRM is at the core of their deliverables, they go further in this area than typical creative agencies."

Although specialized areas like CRM may carry a dull reputation, or at least don't fit neatly into the conventional creative toolkit, part of FCB/Six's proposition is that this doesn't have to be the case.

"This is a creative canvas we believe is undervalued and underutilized," said Tyler Turnbull, Global CEO of FCB and a key architect of FCB/Six. "If we apply better thinking to this area, we can help brands grow and win."

A network under pressure

FCB/Six's double-digit growth contrasts with the broader struggles facing IPG. IPG is dealing with slowing technology spending, sudden loss of major clients, and the difficult transformation of former digital favorites R/GA andHuge. IPG is currently exploring"strategic alternatives"for these two agencies. The network, one of the big four advertising groups, sold Hill Holliday and Deutsch New York to Attivo Group, a New Zealand-based marketing services newcomer, earlier this year.

IPG reportedorganic growth of 1.7% in the second quarter, with net revenue totaling $2.33 billion. These results met Wall Street expectations but were lower than the organic growth rates of competitors such as Publicis and Omnicom. The sudden loss of the Pfizer business in the spring shook the network. FCB's Chicago office cut9% of its staffin May due to the Pfizer loss, while the largerIPG Health division cut 5% of its U.S. workforce in June。

FCB/Six, which has grown steadily over the past eight years, can be seen as a bet on the future. FCB/Six benefits from insights from IPG-owned products such as data marketing company Acxiom—acquired by the network for $2.3 billion in 2018—and Kinesso, a market intelligence group launched a year later.

FCB/Six tends to play a lower-profile, behind-the-scenes role, consistent with its responsibilities in data management and activation. This doesn't mean its scope is small: FCB/Six assists with everything from data governance—an area ofgrowing concern for CMOs around security and compliance—to achieving better personalization across channels such as email, digital, and social. For a small team like Scene+—a Canadian loyalty program co-owned by Cineplex's Galaxy Entertainment, Scotiabank, and Empire Company—FCB/Six has been crucial in building data systems that enable scalable personalized creative work while ensuring proper governance.

"They have technical expertise in how to manage customer data in the most efficient and effective way," said Lisa Doke, Executive Director of Marketing at Scene+.

Competitive landscape

The initial revival of CRM took root among agencies in the media and commerce verticals—such as Dentsu's acquisition of Merkle in 2016—but has over time affected many aspects of the marketing pipeline.

"(Creatives) have been slower to adopt this strategy because they come from a different world," Pattisall said. "Overall, creative agencies have lower data literacy than media agencies or digital agencies."

According to Pattisall, other companies combining CRM, loyalty, and creativity include Publicis's Digitas and Razorfish, as well as Omnicom Precision Marketing Group. CRM and similar precision-oriented strategies have also guided recent deals and streamlining efforts.

WPP's merger of Wunderman Thompson and VMLY&R into VML, as well as Ogilvy's revival of itsOgilvy One brand specializing in direct marketingare some recent examples. According to earlier reports from Marketing Dive, VML executives sawrising demand for CRM and loyalty-related services in 2024。

"It's often the larger global network companies doing this because they are the ones seeing the advantages of scale," Pattisall said. "This is a trend that is happening, and these are early examples."

Key hires

FCB/Six now has an international footprint, but its origins are in Canada. The brand was spun off in 2016 from an email marketing service called Rivet, aiming to enhance FCB's expertise in areas such as front-end design, user experience, and data-driven marketing. FCB/Six gained momentum over several years, expanding across North America in 2018, but accelerated growth with a key hire in 2021.

Tina Allan, then at Omnicom's BBDO, was impressed by FCB's widely praised "Whopper Detour" campaign for Burger King while serving as a jury member at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. The campaignused geoconquesting strategies to divert foot traffic away from competitors like McDonald's. IPG veteran Susan Credle—appointed this year as the advertising holding group's first creative advisor—connected with Allan and ultimately attracted the executive to FCB.

"When Tina joined, we had big ambitions for the FCB/Six brand. We wanted to take it from Canada to the world," Turnbull recalled, who himself started at FCB Canada. "Things have accelerated since then."

Since Allan joined three years ago, FCB/Six has won more than 50 data and performance accounts. The executive waspromoted to FCB Global Chief Data and Intelligence Officerlate last year, and she has led expansion into international markets including India, which analysts say provides a strategic advantage. Thanks to launches in Brazil, New Zealand, and London, headcount doubled in 2023, and FCB/Six has added another 200 employees so far this year, contrasting with layoffs elsewhere in the industry.

"More and more global marketers are trying to streamline their agency relationships with partners," said R3's Paull. "A data-driven agency with a global footprint is a highly competitive proposition."

A driver of "change management"

Although FCB/Six's trajectory is upward, the path has not been without bumps. One of Allan's first projects was integrating the scattered talent and platforms that existed when she joined FCB. In her words, her task was "change management." Allan explained why changing an organization that was already performing well is harder than changing one that is struggling and needs a complete overhaul.

"I only believe in double-digit growth," Allan said. "I will get my hands dirty. I think many people won't."

Although Allan declined to provide details, her agenda included migrating staff off legacy platforms that no longer fit FCB/Six's direction. The executive believes one of her biggest obstacles was historical talent in mature data roles who had to abandon old ways of working and relearn. Efforts to streamline and strengthen internal consistency caused some dissatisfaction but proved necessary to kick-start FCB/Six's engine.

"Streamlining involved many traditional, what I call generic products that couldn't provide real-time insights," Allan said.

Since the first year, Allan's three major strategic priorities have included: connecting ad tech and martech through deeper collaboration with Salesforce, including training and certification for employees; identifying addressable audiences to bridge creativity and media; and going deeper into data through IPG assets like Acxiom. This attitude is helping FCB/Six capitalize on CMOs' growing demand for performance marketing, reflected in increased spending on channels like retail media, which is widely regarded as the fastest-growing segment of the digital landscape.

"Media is fine, but media is currently just one of the customer touchpoints. Especially as we move into commerce—which is our focus—the world is shifting from brand to purchase," Allan said. "Most agencies stick to their lane. We're not in that business."

Future pipeline

Looking ahead, Turnbull's philosophy is optimism and what he calls a "never-finished spirit" for FCB/Six and the broader FCB agency, which has grown for five consecutive years at the global level. Client wins such as being appointed as Mazda Canada's CRM agency support the momentum stemming from FCB/Six's differentiated capabilities. In announcing the selection, Mazda executives specifically cited Salesforce expertise as a reason for deepening the partnership.

"From a new business perspective, we have never had as many opportunities globally as we do now," Turnbull said.