Fifty years ago, on April 1, 1976, a date that sounds more like a punchline than a beginning, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, better known as Woz, started something in ...

Let’s face it: competition in the agency world has never been more intense. With low barriers to entry, the number of players continues to grow. Every time a client ...

At a recent Second Wind Jam Session, we asked agency owners and account leaders to weigh in on a timely question: What does great account leadership mean now? The conversation ...

The results of our 2026 Agency Health & Growth Check are in, and one thing is clear, agencies are moving quickly with AI, but the old challenge of keeping a steady ...

Account service is where most agency financial results are actually decided. Not in the pitch. Not in the creative reveal. But in the everyday moments when scope is clarified, priorities ...

Small and midsize agencies are navigating a unique mix of opportunity and pressure in 2026. Technology continues to drive efficiency and expand capabilities, yet many firms are managing tighter client ...

Financial success in an agency can no longer rest solely with the principal or controller. There are simply too many opportunities to make or lose money throughout the workflow. In ...

Most agencies benchmark themselves the same way. They compare revenue year over year. They watch utilization. They track pipeline and margins. Then they try to optimize what already exists. That ...

Everything in an agency tends to change at once. Clients shift priorities. Creative takes longer than expected. Budgets move. Timelines slip. What starts as a small adjustment in one place ...

During a recent JAM session, agency leaders and senior team members compared notes on what is working, what’s not, and where agencies need to rethink how the work gets ...

The word holistic gets tossed around in agency conversations with little thought given to what it actually means. It has become one of those comfortable jargon terms that sounds smart ...

Agency business planning is something we at Second Wind talk about every year and for good reason. Some agencies have this discipline down to a science. But many smaller shops ...

For agency leaders navigating the evolving landscape of artificial intelligence, the question isn't if to integrate AI, but how. Recently, we hosted a Second Wind JAM Session called AI ...

You can feel it before you can name it.

The work is fine, the team is capable, but something’s… off. Projects take longer, meetings feel heavier, and energy is ...

In the latest joint study by the 4A’s and Forrester, The State of Generative AI Inside U.S. Agencies (2025), we find that the game has changed again. Generative ...

Succession planning might not be the most glamorous part of running an agency, but it’s one of the most critical, especially for small shops where leadership transitions can make ...

The traditional notion of an account executive was that of someone ordered around by the client and disdained by the agency creative. Or, they were the ones living large on ...

We’re living in a world where marketing moves at the speed of AI, clients are scattered across the country, and agencies are under more pressure than ever to deliver ...

Let’s face it—hiring in a small advertising agency is tough. You’re juggling client deadlines, pitches, and production calendars, all while trying to find that one unicorn who ...

No matter how much technology changes the way agencies prospect, one truth remains: nothing beats a strong referral. The latest Second Wind survey shows that referrals continue to be the ...