Lee St. James, a former executive within both WPP and Omnicom owned agencies, has decided to join and help the industry innovator drive change into what most marketers are calling an “archaic” holding company model.
“After hearing the company’s mission and speaking with Kyle, I was ready to make things happen,” Lee St. James stated, “He had me at ‘Let’s the change the way holding companies in our industry create and grow’, which I took as change the world.”
“The traditional holding group models of the ‘big four’ are simply outdated,” said Kyle Borgman, Chairman & Group CEO of new age holding group Circletree Enterprises, “Many marketers don’t trust that model any longer due to the lack of transparency, bloated overhead excess being paid for, and increasingly non-existent levels of speed that clients can’t depend on in the fast-paced consumer environment.”
Borgman added, “Unfortunately for Mark Read and John Wren, they’re far past the ability to make the significant changes needed to make this happen, that’s where we come in.”
It’s no secret that the holding company model pioneered by Sir Martin Sorrell in the mid-1980’s has been under fire and is now seen as inefficient for today’s landscape. Specifically, after the Ukraine War started, the entire concept of globalization is argued to be at stake.
“There’s no question that the business has to keep pace or better lead the race for better work, faster,” Lee stated, “But creativity cannot be where the squeeze should fall in order for us to grow to size we can become either.”
CE’s board of directors will feature an industry first committee coined as the “creative committee”. Although Borgman’s combination of entrepreneurial and business acumen drives him to grow CE and its clients at the fastest pace possible, the creative committee is in place to ensure internal constituents such as the team, internal morel, and creativity are not sacrificed for the growth of the company like many other agency groups in the past.
Lee added, “Finance guys ruined the industry’s holding model because they sacrificed concern for the clients and devalued the results and creative expression that clients need. Without those, you get the Mac monkey mash we have today which is why the creative committee was designed in the first place.”
“We’re driving new standards for financial accountability and marketing capability,” Borgman confidently stated, “And we will continue to emerge as the better and more reliable choice for historical brands across the landscape with the help of great talent like Lee, it’s as simple as that.”