dear cmo,
If this feels familiar …
Strategy feels templated, not tailored.
Endless layers. Bloated teams.
Weeks to launch simple campaigns.
Nothing ships without friction.
More meetings than movement.
We move slower because of our agency.
We brief them. Then re-brief them.
Junior talent in over their heads.
Revolving door of senior talent.
Institutional knowledge walks out the door.
We’re doing their thinking for them.
Shopping for ideas. Paying for headcount.
Activity mistaken for progress.
If we fired them tomorrow, would anything actually break?
… you’re in the right place.
that’s why we wrote THE open letterS
THINK SMALL.
WE TRY HARDER.
WHERE’S THE BEEF?
These three iconic ads share one thing in common—they challenge the consumer to stop, pause, and reconsider commonly understood narratives.
Conventional wisdom for cars is that bigger is better. For service industries it’s that you should always go with number one. And when it comes to burgers, a bigger burger means one with more meat on it.
Each of these ads directly confronted something that had never been challenged—and proved that unconventional wisdom is actually wiser.
The conventional wisdom for agencies is that scale is the advantage—so get the biggest one you can afford. Ironically, unconventional wisdom agrees that scale is the advantage—but only when it’s capped at the-smallest-number-of-the-smartest-people.
So we’re putting that same challenge to CMOs and brands: Stop. Pause. And reconsider the commonly understood narratives of our industry.
Obviously, marketing in 2026 is more complex than the days of Bill Bernbach, but if he were launching his agency today, he’d be asking the same question: “Did you hire an agency—or inherit an org chart?”
If you’re not already questioning these assumptions and exploring alternatives, you should be, because those who move first will have an unfair advantage. And it’s never too late to start.
and We’re PUTting OUR MONEY WHERE OUR MOUTH IS
BECAUSE You don’t need a new agency. You need a better signal.
We’re sO convinced, we’ll prove it.
For the right brands we have two almost risk-free opportunities to test a smaller, smarter model—without replacing your agency.
School of Signal
Up to $25,000 (Depending on number of participants.)
A four-hour, custom-built, hands-on, brains-on, workshop inspired by the belief that thinking like a creative unlocks the unfair advantage of creating signal in the noise. In this workshop, you and your team will learn and apply The Signal Code. Three irrefutable principles of creating Black Noise, and you will leave the workshop with one brilliant idea you created for your brand you can activate immediately.
In four hours, you’ll know if this works.
Two-Week Brand Sprint
$25,000 (Usually $40,000)
Working from a tight brief, around a specific challenge, we will generate three ideas in two fast weeks for your team to evaluate. Once you select one to move forward, a second paid sprint would fully develop the idea. The third sprint would be us executing the ideas developed in the first two sprints.
In two weeks, you’ll see what your current agency can’t produce.
THE STATUS QUO HAS LOST ITS STATUS
TIME to take action
FAQ
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In a word—change. We believe our industry has entered a creative Renaissance, so we’re throwing fuel on that fire.
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When big ad decided they needed to get smaller, they cut their most experienced, most proven talent—ironically helping launch all these new agencies.
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We live in a time when holding companies should really be called, holding-on companies. These letters exist to codify this point of profound change. To draw a line in the sand. Then dare big brands to cross it.
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Make no mistake, these startups and upstarts aren’t juniors taking their first steps in the ad world. These are veterans—people who’ve helped define big, serious, global brands. And almost every one of these new endeavors is creatively-led—because the beancounters are too busy trying to figure out what happened to their beans.
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This is not a one-agency shift—this is a sea change. So for us, it’s an opportunity to raise an armada of excellence to sink the snake oil tankers of mediocrity.