Agency Leaders Podcast: Susan Howe Says,“We Are Made For This Moment”

(MENAFN- PRovoke) In the second of our Agency Leaders Podcast series, Paul Holmes talked with Susan Howe, chief executive of The Weber Shandwick Collective, for a wide-ranging conversation that included the challenges of maintaining a cohesive culture across one of the world's largest agencies, the importance of creativity, the changing media landscape, AI, and the impending merger between Interpublic and Omnicom.

You can listen to the entire discussion here, but among the highlights::

• The culture at Weber Shandwick is“a combination of restlessness and reinvention. ... We've always prided ourselves on looking ahead. What is the tool, the technology, the next chapter of communications?”
• Howe says her role as chief collaboration officer was to“take the good intentions of individual contributors and make it a system. So what should our talent pool look like? What is the mix of strategists and creators and digital analysis to build a solution for our clients into the future.”
• There are significant benefits to having the size and scale of a Weber Shandwick, she says:“If you started out as an account person or a creator and you end up as a strategist or you move to another location, all of those opportunity exist.... It creates opportunities for our team to grow.”
• In terms of creative,“We have a high premium on creating earned first ideas that travel and deliver business impact for our clients, around the world.... Creativity is not just born in one place, but when you have lots of places bringing ideas forward.... That's culture in action.”
• “The largest trend that we're seeing,” says Howe,“is the fundamental shift in media and how media travels.... We need to come up with new systems to make our ideas work harder in a completely changed world.”
• On the continuing importance of purpose:“I do think that purpose holds a huge part of the future. I think that what happened maybe a few years ago was people jumping on purpose in a shallow way, versus those brands that are intrinsically built for purpose. So the cases where brands were dabbling, maybe that will fall away. But the cases where purpose is absolutely who a brand is, that will always remain.”
• When it comes to integrated campaigns,“we are the earned accelerant for so many client and interagency teams.... We are very, very skilled at working within an agency ecosystem.... We are able to look at audiences, track the motivations, find the opportunities in culture and conversations.”
• On the impact of AI, Howe says“it goes back to culture that I talked about before, where we see our role is to continue to reinvent, to be the agency focused on the future. AI is a huge part of how we will do that.” Within IPG, she says, Weber Shandwick is able to tap into“the largest ethically sourced data stream on the planet,” taking the earned-first lens and applying it to AI invention also.
• On changes at the agency since her appointment late last year,“I do think that I'm so lucky to step into this role after incredible leaders, but I'm also really energized by the leadership team that we have going forward. So I did reset. As you know, I named Karen and Jim as global presidents taking parts of the role that I had. They each have such incredible strength and skills in terms of strategic thinking, business operations, corporate advisory, brand building.”
• With Weber Shandwick parent Interpublic about to merge with rival Omnicom,“I don't know what will happen,” says Howe,“but I am very energized about the opportunity. I think it's more chances for our team to have new opportunities with different agencies to do alchemy, to make magic. And when you look across the network at Omnicom, there are a lot of partners we've worked with for clients for many years. So I believe that it gives us a broader playing field. It's great for Interpublic.”
• Finally, in terms of the broader future for public relations,“It is a very complex time, and I think you can't underestimate the kinds of pressure our clients are under in this moment of uncertainty and change. Everyone is watching the business environment related to the administration and the geopolitical challenges and changes.
  
  “I think for us, we are made for this moment. We have created an ecosystem that is able to support our clients in all kinds of ways. We're giving them insight, of course, into the geopolitical conditions. We're helping them prepare for a variety of eventualities.... Our advisory services are at an all time high. But at the same time, we also are watching the media environment and how we need to continue to evolve and bring brand and business stories that help move the needle on behalf of our clients.”
  
  

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