⁄Tactics⁄ What are you hearing from clients right now, as far as what they’re looking for? A few months ago, I was hearing that there was a lot of hesitancy around ad spends. I think hesitancy is the best way to describe the environment that we’re in right now. It’s not like it was when we entered into the pandemic. I would say for the first year and a half — maybe two years — into the pandemic, the entire world tilted digital. We were shut down; we were remote. Brick and mortar did not exist in the same way that it did [before], so brands were really leaning on digital marketing efforts. They were leaning on email more than ever. They were leaning on digital activations. The world has kind of come back out on the other side a little bit. We’re not in that period anymore where we’re all leaning digital. I think we’re in a period that really exemplifies what true partnership looks like. We have clients that we deeply respect, and it’s our job to kind of see them through this, and it’s our job to work with them and to make the budgets that they do have go the furthest, and get really creative and innovative about how we’re spending that budget. But yes, we’re in a period of pullback, for sure. And I think everyone’s feeling that a little bit. I think the brands are feeling it. I think agencies are feeling it as well. When you talk about people shifting away from digital a little bit, what are people wanting to spend on now? I think digital is still the primary channel. Obviously, that’s the space that we’re in, so that’s what we feel. I think there’s reprioritization within digital. Earlier on, it was more activation-based. We were doing a lot of high-volume production. We were doing heavily email work and output, and that still very much is a priority, and it’s an ROI driver. That’s something that is our bread and butter, and we’re going to always be in that. But what I am seeing a shift in — and maybe more of an expansion into — is wanting to explore multichannel when it comes to digital efforts, and wanting to explore user-generated content, and really looking at how AI can be leveraged to allow budgets to be stretched further and to help assist with output, especially in the production world. I think, lastly, that conceptual and visual creative is a big space where it’s a moment and an opportunity for brands to come forth and produce that ad, produce that film, that maybe is 30, 60 seconds, and it really gives the consumers this unmatched experience for what that brand is representing and what they’re putting out into the world. I feel like we’re seeing an expansion beyond performance marketing — which is still absolutely a key priority — but we’re seeing expansion to these other spaces, and we’re working to kind of meet that demand and stay ahead of it and innovate within it, and be a driver for it instead of being responsive to it. I think it’s more of an expansion and less a move away from digital. All channels are on the table right now, and clients are wanting multipronged solutions. How Keely York Keeps It Real The CEO of Thesis talks about AI, authentic experience and why the digital creative agency is not abandoning DEI. INTERVIEW BY CHRISTEN McCURDY When Keely York started at eROI 13 years ago, the firm was small and focused on email marketing. York started at entry level as an account coordinator, gradually working her way up to account manager, creative officer and then president of the agency. In 2019 eROI rebranded as Thesis, a full-service creative agency focused on performance marketing as well as operations and integration support and conceptual creative work. And in 2022, York became CEO, succeeding founder Ryan Buchanan (who remains co-owner and a member of the firm’s advisory board). The idea, York says, was to “create a different agency model amidst a very interesting landscape.” “The oncoming headwinds have felt pretty relentless the last five years,” York says. The pandemic upended every industry in the world, including marketing, “but it’s also been everything after that. It’s been the ripple effect. It’s been the economic changes. It’s been the political implications. It’s been shifts in how people want to work and just human behavior, consumer behavior.” Another setback came in 2023 when Isaac Lee Morris, a former chief product officer for Thesis, was charged with embezzling more than $100,000 from the agency (a separate civil suit tallies the losses at $815,000). The following summer a Multnomah County circuit court judge dropped the criminal case as Morris was unable to find counsel due to a shortage of public defenders in the state. York declined to comment on the matter for this story, but according to a spokesperson for the Multnomah County District Attorney’s office, the criminal case is “very much open,” with a trial scheduled in December. Through those headwinds, Thesis has persevered. One of the top creative agencies in the state by headcount (with 172 people on payroll as of last fall), Thesis’ clients include Estée Lauder, Airtable, MLS and Throne. In July York met with Oregon Business at Thesis’ Slabtown headquarters — a four-story mass-timber building constructed in 2024 — to talk about what digital marketing looks like in 2025. “Consumers are looking for more authenticity and relatability in the marketing and advertising they’re seeing from the brands that they purchase from, and that they’re followers of,” York says. “So I’m trying to kind of set us up internally to configure us in a way that’s going to serve where this space is headed, but also simultaneously not looking too far out, where you’re pre-planning for things that may or may not happen.” This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 12
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