The race to adopt AI and do more with less has put a new question in front of marketing leaders: how do you build the right team when workflows are being automated and budgets are tightening? At an ADWEEK House roundtable co-hosted by Weber Shandwick, C-suite marketers from Unilever, Supergoop!, and PurposeBuilt Brands shared a common answer: human collaboration is still the real creative engine.
Agencies as embedded partners, not vendors
Weber Shandwick CEO Karen Pugliese said her agency wants to join brands before the brief hardens. “We want to get into it with brands when the clay is still wet. Because that’s how we make the work better together,” she said. The point is not more meetings; it is giving the agency room to shape the idea rather than react to it.
Jon Bellante, CMO of PurposeBuilt Brands, said two of his brands brought in Weber Shandwick to move faster and eliminate the traditional agency reveal. The goal, he said, was a partner that operates as an extension of the internal team on an ongoing basis.
Make early involvement a leadership habit
Melanie Cappella, chief growth officer for cooking aids and mini meals at Unilever Foods U.S., said it is hard to change direction when a campaign is almost finished. Her fix is to be in the room early: seeing the brief, reviewing the assignment that goes to agency partners, and helping shape the first rounds of an idea.
Lauren Weinberg, CMO of Supergoop!, described a similar discipline. In group reviews she deliberately speaks last. That lets divergent perspectives surface and get debated openly before her view lands, which she says helps the team move quickly and create better work.
What the right team means in the AI era
Weinberg built her Supergoop! team looking for people who can adapt and experiment with new AI tools. Going forward, she is weighting what she calls “humanity space” skills: creativity, communication, and being in touch with culture, alongside the agility to let AI handle tasks.
For marketing leaders, the implication is practical:
- Bring agency partners into idea formation, not just execution.
- Use bottom-up reviews so junior and divergent voices speak before senior leaders.
- Hire for adaptability and cultural fluency, not just platform or AI proficiency.
The roster decision is becoming a creative operating model. Brands that treat agencies as embedded collaborators, and manage reviews to protect debate, can compress feedback loops and get better work without adding headcount.
Source: Adweek
