Agency · Value Creation · AI Rethinking Value in the Agency World
Most agencies don't have a creativity problem. They have a value creation problem.
Show notes
David Göz and Paul Krauss dissect the structural issues holding agencies back: shrinking margins, wrong incentives, procurement logic, and the belief that more assets equal more value.
They explore why outcome-based models matter, how AI accelerates both the good and the bad, and why strategy is quietly returning as the most important differentiator in the industry.
"Value is everything that makes people happy, brings them forward, and gives them a reason to pay more."
"The biggest risk of doing innovative stuff in marketing is never something like brand reputation risk. The biggest risk is always just wasting your marketing budget."
"Most of the value of a creative agency actually comes from creating the concept. Most of the time in agencies is actually spent on creating derivatives of that initial concept."
"If you can produce infinite assets, the only thing that works is to understand which kind of strategy works — because you probably don't have so much money that you can pull limitless ads."
The Playbook
The reusable principles from this conversation.
The Playbook
1. Separate concept from execution — price them differently
Concept is where scarce human judgement lives. Execution — asset production, derivatives, variations — is what AI does cheaply. Right now, most agencies bundle both into a single fee. As AI makes execution nearly free, that bundle collapses. The agencies that survive will price the idea at its real value and treat production as a volume operation.
Why it's overlooked: Agencies built their identity around execution craft. Telling clients "the idea costs this, the files cost that" feels like vulnerability. It is actually clarity — and it is the only model that survives commoditised production.
The Playbook
2. Use AI to test more concepts, not produce more executions
The most valuable thing AI enables is rapid concept testing. Five conceptually different approaches can now be produced and tested before committing to full production. Most agencies use AI to accelerate the production phase while leaving the concept phase untouched. That is the wrong inversion.
Why it's overlooked: Production speed is visible and impressive in agency decks. Concept iteration is messier and harder to sell. But the quality of the hypothesis determines the quality of everything downstream.
The Playbook
3. Start with the client's job to be done, not their brief
A brief describes what a client wants produced. A job to be done describes what they are actually trying to achieve. The best briefs align those two things. Most do not. Agencies that start from the job become strategic partners. Agencies that start from the brief become vendors.
Why it's overlooked: Jobs-to-be-done conversations take longer and require the agency to know more. Briefs are faster. The short-term efficiency of just executing the brief is also the reason most agencies cannot prove their strategic value.
The Playbook
4. Agree to be measured on outcomes, not deliverable counts
Agencies measured on impression volume and file delivery are protected from accountability. They are also prevented from demonstrating real value. Propose outcome-based metrics at the start of every engagement. Three business metrics that your work should be moving. Present evidence at the end of the period. This single practice differentiates you from every other agency the client works with.
Why it's overlooked: Outcome metrics hand some control to the client and expose the agency to being wrong. Output metrics are always "achieved." The risk of outcome measurement feels real. The cost of avoiding it is being treated as a commodity.
The Guest
Paul Krauss
AI Partner · TeamOne Developers
Paul works at the intersection of AI and creative strategy, tackling structural issues in today's agency landscape: fragmented models, wrong incentives, and the belief that more output equals more value.
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