At a recent Second Wind JAM Session, we opened with a simple question: what's actually working right now? The conversation covered new business momentum, acquisitions, platform strategy, and the ...

Agencies have always had to fight for attention. Now they have to fight for belief. Too many channels, too much noise, and a level of consumer skepticism that did not ...

When clients take work in-house, it is hard not to take it personally. Relationships built over years get handed to internal teams, and the instinct is to wait them out ...

Disney just cut 1,000 marketing jobs. New CEO, first major move, and most of the damage landed in marketing. Here's what actually happened.

For years, Disney ran marketing ...

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 ...

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 ...

At Second Wind, one of the best ways to keep your agency on track is to peek under the hood and learn from others. That’s why we hosted a ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

Over our long career in this business, we have learned several things that have become a credo for agency success.

Agency principals remove themselves from daily account service. They become ...

Claiming an area of focus has long been an advertising agency business strategy. For many agencies, areas of focus evolved naturally, with successful work for one industry client leading to ...

Succession planning is a crucial aspect of managing a business, and for smaller advertising agency owners, the challenge is often compounded by the unique dynamics of the industry. One increasingly ...

A number of years ago, AdAge ran a great article on the occasion of agency Hill Holliday Connors Cosmopulos turning thirty. Hill Holliday, as it is known today, is a ...

It’s a good question: most agencies have an account mix that is far from ideal. Frequently, a single account controls the life of any given agency—a “gorilla,” if ...

You’ve nurtured, fed, hovered over, and perhaps spent every waking minute working on and worrying about your agency. Meanwhile, your agency people, who helped you to grow the business ...

A number of years ago, there was a very interesting article in the New Yorker. The article reported that when you are a contestant on the game show, “Who Wants ...

Think of your brain as a muscle. Regular exercise keeps it in tone, but you need to balance exercise with rest periods to achieve peak function. You may be able ...