Bye Bye Monks | Say Hello to Vector

I have worked at the nexus of disruption and opportunity in our business for 25 years, the last 6 of which have been under the institutional heritage of our industry. From startups and exists to rollups and public markets - technology driven behavioral opportunity has always been where I eat.

I could spend 10,000 words belaboring why digital and AI are the enablement and scale factors of life in the 21st century - and I will in time. But the TLDR for this post is about a net effect: By 2035, audiences—not products—will define the world's most valuable companies. Growth and scale will be evaluated by the demonstrable ability to develop and monetize your audience in new, exciting and incremental ways. Working together within purpose built networks, collaborative go-to-market strategy will be the primary indicator of future marketplace success - weighed and measured in the aggregate. As time ushers in new leadership and influence, a generation of talent will flock to companies that prioritize audience first growth. These principles start to unpack the commercial tsunami of the Audience Age.

The Audience Age also represents a shift that is eating the marketing and technology services industry from the inside out (and the outside in). A virtual ultimatum to either provide new growth opportunity to clients or join the rat race to outsourced labor provider purgatory.?This is not AI’s fault. AI’s rampant adoption is simply napalm on a gasoline fire. As the evidence of sea change has mounted I’ve grown increasingly impatient with the boundaries and bureaucracy of our industry institution. As an industry, we need to embrace the new demands of the market place and accept the new norms of human behavior and face what it means to be in our business in 2025 and 2050. We need to stop peddling insignificant growth as an accomplishment, obfuscating a rotting value proposition - it’s time for change.

Sometimes you have to close a door to open a window. [- TTC]

I’ve moved on from S4/Monks and started a new project helping businesses transform for the Audience Age. For clients - Vector is transforming businesses into audience-first platforms – identifying and harnessing the opportunities of the future. For our industry - Vector is building the network that tomorrow demands. Reasonable rates and fees mentality is retired for an extraordinary growth mindset. A place where modern talent work in modern ways for a modern world. Bill Hobbs and I lit the torch. We’re bringing on enterprise clients in sports and entertainment, technology and emerging markets. We’re looking for colleagues, partners, coconspirators and high fives. We’re assembling the pieces, taking bits from what works, what’s needed, and disregarding what doesn’t work and (quite frankly) will never work again. It’s going to be an adventure.?

We chose the name Vector to embody our ambition because it’s both simple and empowering. Today you are here. Tomorrow you want to be there. Find your vector.

Drop me line if you want to learn more. (Yay! .. exhale).?

PS. Thank you to the hundreds of people we’ve talked to while piecing this puzzle together - too many names to mention - but you know who you are and we love you. To my colleagues and peers at Monks - ?????????