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This post was created in partnership with Weber Shandwick

As AI streamlines workflows and marketing budgets tighten, human collaboration and partnership remain as important as ever to create strong creative.

During an ADWEEK House Advertising HQ Marketing Vanguard roundtable panel co-hosted by Weber Shandwick, Jenny Rooney, chief brand and community officer at ADWEEK, and Karen Pugliese, CEO of Weber Shandwick, gathered with C-suite executives to discuss how brands can put together the right marketing team with a mix of both in-house staff and agency partners.

Agencies as collaborators for brands

Pugliese shared the stage with marketing and growth executives from three Weber Shandwick clients—Unilever, Supergoop!, and PurposeBuilt Brands. She views Weber Shandwick’s role with clients like these as a partner, not a vendor, and prefers to start working with brands as early in the creative process as possible.

“We want to get into it with brands when the clay is still wet. Because that’s how we make the work better together,” Pugliese shared. “That’s what collaboration looks like; how we get to great work.” 

Jon Bellante, CMO of PurposeBuilt Brands, added that two of his company’s brands brought on Weber Shandwick for that close collaboration.

“We ultimately wanted to move faster and, essentially, get rid of the agency reveal,” Bellante said. “We needed to have a partner that was going to be an extension of our team that we could collaborate with on an ongoing basis.”

Leaders willing to be ‘in the work’

Lauren Weinberg, CMO of Supergoop! is working with a new team, which has pushed her to work collaboratively and quickly. She likes being “in the work” and doesn’t worry about hierarchy among her staff. 

“Whenever we review work in a group setting, I always go last because I want to make sure everyone else’s voice is heard before I say whatever I’m going to say,” Weinberg explained. “I think bringing those divergent perspectives to the table and having us debate it openly allows us to move quickly and helps us create the best work.” 

For Melanie Cappella, chief growth officer of cooking aids and mini meals at Unilever Foods U.S., working with her team early is important. In the past, she’s found it hard to make changes once a project or campaign is close to being finished.

“Being involved in the early phases and making sure that you see the brief, you see the assignment that’s going over to the agency partners, and that you are in the first early rounds of shaping an idea, can really leave an impact,” Cappella said. 

Human teams in the age of AI

When Weinberg built her team at Supergoop!, she looked for employees who could adapt and were willing to experiment with new AI tools. 

Looking ahead, as AI streamlines workflows, Weinberg seeks out candidates with qualities in the “humanity space,” like creativity, communication, and being in touch with culture. 

“It’s those kinds of skills combined with the right mindset and the ability to be agile that I think are most important in a world where you can have AI take on different tasks,” Weinberg added.