Rethinking partnerships

2020 saw a seismic shift in the brand-agency dynamic — and one that Google’s US B2B team wanted to explore. As strategic partners, we created a first-of-its-kind series of stories featuring industry-leading partners revealing how to be ready for the future, together.

A conversational approach

When Google and the 4A’s commissioned a new study about brand and agency partnerships, we had one challenge: how do we bring the insights to life? To do it, we brought together the most interesting brand and agency leaders in a series of open, honest and authentic conversations called ‘Ready Together’. And, with everyone from 75-year-strong partners talking about supercharging creative to freshly formed pairings discussing the automation opportunity, it delivered exactly what we needed: a human way to show how brands and agencies can be ready, together.

A snackable series

To get the attention of time-poor marketers at a time of high digital fatigue, we knew we needed to do something different. As a result, we partnered closely to create a series of ‘Visual Stories’ – a newly formed platform copmrising short pages on Google’s thought leadership website, Think with Google. Using a split-screen technique, we visually brought our partners ‘together’ through a series of multi-city shoots to build five micro-edits per story. Framed with insights, the end result was an experience with one core message: the way to truly be ready for the future, is to do it together.

An industry-wide campaign

In a world apart, our series brought agencies and brands together – and won industry attention as a result. Launching at 4A’s Decisions 2021 to a highly targeted audience of key executives, Ready Together was picked up by industry press and shared by brand and agency leaders across social and email – showing the appeal of insight-led, human-driven content across the industry.