We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Caitlin Wiggins. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Caitlin below.

Caitlin, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s start big picture – what are some of biggest trends you are seeing in your industry?

I’m currently the Director of Marketing for an award-winning integrated advertising agency, so as far as trends go, I’m going to focus on the concept of disruption being a constant in the business world over the past few years. As an agency leader, staying updated on conditions affecting our market is a top priority for me throughout 2023. I’ve identified 3 major trends that speak to me and my company and client-base specifically.

1. Intentional hiring and employee growth:
For decades, businesses have relentlessly pursued consumer-oriented solutions in the creation of brands across industries. However, we’re seeing a shift in focus that includes a much more purposeful orientation toward employees—both current and prospective. We understand our client base, our target audience, and the why and how we align with these groups. From my standpoint, it all comes down to personality and work style. Sharing a similar passion, focus, and collaborative work ethic produces a healthy and happy work environment. A happy, responsive, welcoming, and open work environment fosters dynamite work product. This should speak for itself. The organizations that want to work with us will ultimately be driven by the factors of who we are as people, how we engage with clients, and what kind of work we produce. I’m looking to grow people within our agency and foster long-term relationships. To me, that’s powerful for the people we employ and the people that employ us.

2. Refocusing on the creative:
In the world of branding and marketing, we’re seeing a migration away from this bland, dull design movement we’ve seen many brands pursue with their corporate identities, mainly B2C. I think we’re starting to see a shift back to this idea of talented, unique, and impactful design as brands continue to push to stand out amongst the crowd. We’ve always had a design-thinking mentality as an agency even. Historically, this methodology was mainly used by creatives and academia. I’m seeing a rise in this adoption by other industries, and even other departments, specifically more operational. My masters program focused on the intersection of media and business strategy, fostered on a foundation of design thinking. it’s something I’ve always tried to employ, and push for even moreso now that I am in an operational position. I think this also ties into our work product at the end of the day.

Specifically, the rise of creative agencies has ramped up based on this importance of creativity in marketing. Creative agencies like ours are no longer just for creative work; we’re for all aspects of your marketing. We provide everything from strategy development to campaign planning and management, even copywriting, branding, and public relations. We see brands from a holistic perspective, utilizing creative thinking as we approach each and every project.

3. AI:
AI is an exciting tool for us, but it’s also become a package of positive and negative possibilities for us. Throughout 2023, we’re trying to find the best way to utilize it as part of our workflow, but in a way that doesn’t compromise the integrity of our end work product. I don’t believe that AI tools are going to replace employees anytime soon, but they can certainly help the creative process. For example, we’ve utilized OpenAI to act as a catalyst for brainstorming sessions, and have even used it to analyze data for insights and optimization purposes. Competitive analysis is another area these tools have assisted in. I’m watching it carefully and am curious to see how this evolves – it’s an exciting tool filled with a lot of potential.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Media Studies from Catholic University. I decided to complete my MBA immediately after (also at CUA) to better grasp the business side of what went into my chosen career path. I had the opportunity to learn from some great ad execs and shadow some of the major ad agencies in New York. I knew I wanted to work for some of the biggest brands, but I didn’t know what vertical I wanted to focus on. This led me to start with positions ranging from post-production work for a political client-only agency in DC to various consulting positions, even a small record label. After graduating, I landed a job with a global media consulting firm and worked with brands ranging from Hilton to TBS to Netflix. While I learned so much, I knew that I had a passion for giving back and making positive change, which led me to a career shift to seek out a position with an ad agency focused on giving back. After working at another agency based in Columbia, MD, I ended up at Liquified Creative, where I am currently the Director of Marketing. I love the company I work for and stand behind the work we do.

The industry is competitive, and there are often a lot of people who jump jobs frequently in the agency world. You see, many people move companies every two to four years to climb the ladder, and that wasn’t something I wanted to do. I also didn’t want to go on my own because my expertise, skill set, and experience don’t hold a candle to what an entire, unified creative and account team can accomplish. I think many people start ad agencies or “marketing firms” and don’t have the entire skillset, tools, or bandwidth to provide outstanding strategy and creativity that will pay off in the long run.

My current company, Liquified Creative, is an award-winning integrated ad agency serving various client verticals throughout the country. Our agency strongly focuses on giving back to the community where we work and live, regardless of the size we grow to. We do pro bono work for area non-profits as often as possible and have always focused heavily on our non-profit client sector. We’re know for our creative, strategic marketing, public relations, web design and development, etc., and our true agency of record experience we provide for our clients. We have a fantastic team with a great company culture that lets our clients see that we’re passionate about what we do. We produce work in a collaborative environment unlike any I’ve ever seen or been a part of.

I sometimes hear that I do a lot of account management or project management, but I’m doing much more than that to support the agency as we grow. I handle all marketing strategy, media buying and planning, video production, and more for our clients. I also manage agency operations in tandem with our CEO. I think having a diverse skillset allows me to wear so many hats and mentor new hires where I can. I can see where we have needs to fill and who would be a great hire for that. I ultimately aim to help our team members advance and excel by sharing what I’ve personally learned and how I’ve handled my professional development so that, ultimately, they can stay with us and grow with us long term.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

The role of any leader remains the same: to support your team members. And that includes supporting their mental health. From small things like a hybrid work schedule and extra days off throughout the year, to larger efforts like company morale events, community engagements, and even just providing a comfortable and flexible office environment – you should always be looking for ways to make sure your team is happy and fulfilled in the work they’re doing.

But, providing benefits like PTO and employer-paid health insurance is only a starting point. You should strive to have open conversations about everything from workload to ways to improve the workplace environment, and even growth and professional development. I try my best to make sure each person is actually enjoying the projects they’re working on.

I’ve seen more engagement from employees as a result of open communication, which is a reflection of my philosophy that people should enjoy their work environment, colleagues, and the projects and tasks they’re working on. We’ve seen that our team is more collaborative, avoiding burnout, and more comfortable communicating with leadership openly.

We want our employees to be happy and healthy, and we do all that we can to accommodate that and prioritize that. I want employees to never feel like there is a growth cap at our agency. I want them to realize that they can continue to grow here for as long as they want to be a part of our team. All in all, I think this correlates directly with positive morale.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

Ogilvy’s “On Advertising” was a powerful read for me from a creative and copywriting standpoint.

“Spin Sucks” introduced me to the the PESO Model, which transformed the way I approached strategy and marketing overall.

“How to Win Friends & Influence People” by Dale Carnegie was one of the most influential books I’ve ever read from a business standpoint. I read this in grad school and would recommend to anyone stepping into a leadership position.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.liquifiedcreative.com/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/16wigginsc/

Image Credits
Liquified Creative