Why Agencies Are Selling the Wrong Thing ; Anthony Reeves, Kohler

AI is making execution cheaper. Brands are building stronger in-house teams. Holding companies are consolidating. Production companies are being pushed further downstream.

So what are agencies still uniquely for?

Anthony Reeves has spent his career inside some of the world’s biggest agency networks and brands. He has worked at WPP multiple times, held senior roles at Amazon and LVMH, and now leads Global Brand and Creative at Kohler.

Anthony joins Gully Flowers to discuss why agencies cannot win on efficiency, Kohler’s line on synthetic people, why too much data can weaken a creative brief, how fear changes the work, and why AI may make brand more valuable rather than less.

They also get into creative apprenticeship, why great talent clusters, the danger of becoming too comfortable, and Anthony’s book, Eat the Donkey.

Follow Second Wind for honest conversations with the people shaping the creative business.

Chapters

00:00 Why agencies can’t win on efficiency

00:39 Anthony Reeves

01:21 Moving to Kohler, Wisconsin

01:55 The job of a creative leader

02:36 Kohler’s line on synthetic people

04:14 How AI changed since Cannes 2018

06:01 Has more data improved the creative brief?

08:40 What happened to the holding companies?

10:14 What brands still need agencies for

12:44 Fear changes the work

14:01 How to lead creative teams

18:55 Why AI makes brand more valuable

21:18 Eat the Donkey

25:56 Advice for young creatives

28:19 Why great talent clusters

30:22 Reinvesting in people and brand

31:22 The danger of being downstream

32:40 A better North Star