How Smart Agencies Really Use AI

Summary

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Next in Media: "How Smart Agencies Really Use AI"

Host: Mike Shields
Guest: Andrea Benzik, CEO of Wpromote
Date: July 28, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode explores how independent digital agency Wpromote is leveraging AI, data, and strategic acquisitions to compete with large holding companies as the advertising industry shifts toward technology-driven, outcomes-focused models. Host Mike Shields speaks with Andrea Benzik live from Cannes about the practical use of AI in agencies, blending brand and performance disciplines, and the future of agency compensation.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Life as an Independent Agency (01:40–02:18)

• Andrea Benzik highlights a unique window of opportunity for independent agencies:

  "There's a lot of disruption happening. Not only industry wise with what technology is doing, but also a lot of what's happening with the holdcos. So there’s entryways for us to be considered where maybe we weren’t considered in the past...we're at the prime Goldilocks stage—big enough to be relevant and scale, but not so big that we can't be agile."

  • Wpromote is seizing the market disruption to gain clients that may have previously defaulted to holding companies.

2. The AI and Technology Landscape (02:18–03:37, 07:09–08:42)

• Wpromote is investing in technology—but not with the intention of matching the "AI platform" hype from major holding companies:

  "We have our own technology platform. But really it's being super intentional and disciplined on what does it need to be for us." (Andrea Benzik, 02:34)

  • Focus is on measurement and data consolidation for quick, actionable insights.
  • Wpromote prefers to partner with best-in-class tech and platforms for execution instead of building everything in-house.

• On client priorities and proprietary tech:

  "Our clients and brands are really looking for outcomes and confidence in dollars...we could talk platform all day. At the end, if you don’t drive the outcomes, it doesn’t really matter." (Andrea Benzik, 03:22)

• Regarding AI deployment internally:

  "We're already leaning into it really heavy...execution, both from a buying perspective and even creatively in production, we think that's a great place to leverage AI. But the key strategy and thinking, I don’t think that—you’re not going to be able to rely on AI to do that." (Andrea Benzik, 07:38)

  • AI is used to "remove the busy work," freeing up staff to focus on high-level strategic thinking.

• On boundaries of AI in agency work:

  "AI and technology is very powerful at repeating what it already knows, but recognizing the nuance, it doesn’t do well. That’s where you really want the thinker…" (Andrea Benzik, 08:42)

3. Performance Roots and Expansion Through Acquisition (03:37–06:05, 04:43–05:51)

• Performance heritage is a strength in today’s outcomes-driven climate, but limited Wpromote’s credibility in brand strategy:

  "The key advantage is...being able to understand and see outcomes directly correlated to every dollar...but brands want to do kind of the brand strategy with the performance all in one, which is why we acquired Giant Spoon." (Andrea Benzik, 03:49)

• Acquisition of Giant Spoon:

  • Provided access to creative, experiential, and upper-funnel media expertise.
  • Was essential to instantly add credibility with brands seeking full-funnel solutions:

    "Now we say we have the experts with us...best in class creative and best in class performance showing up as one team." (Andrea Benzik, 05:51)

4. Creator-Led Advertising & The TV Spot Evolution (06:05–07:09)

• Short segment with Charlie Ibarra (Creator Television):
  • Creator ad spots involve creators as true creative partners, not just on-screen talent.

  "It unlocks advertising that feels more culturally relatable and native..." (Charlie Ibarra, 06:43)

  • Brand messages gain resonance by pairing creator authenticity with advanced targeting.

5. Agency Processes & AI “Agents” (09:22–10:38)

• Wpromote is an early adopter of AI "agents" for media buying (via partners like Smartly):

  "We’re leveraging partners like smartly...we hired a team of—they’re very young, but very AI native—to just find different aspects of our organization to understand how are we doing the work...Is there a way to identify some of what we do [to automate]?" (Andrea Benzik, 09:38)

  • Focus is on controlled, intentional use—AI is not autonomously running campaigns.

• On restoring human expertise:

  "Media has gotten so complex...By doing it manually, you lose a lot of why you hired the people that you hired and the expertise that they have. And so we see it as like we're rehiring that back because we're able." (Andrea Benzik, 10:34)

6. Measurement Innovation: The Care Index (10:42–12:30)

• Wpromote launched a new brand measurement tool, the Care Index, in partnership with Northwestern University:

  "It gives us a data driven way to really assess a brand and where they're at...Every five points of increased in the care index results in 10% increase in revenue." (Andrea Benzik, 10:59)

  • Applies a scientific, results-driven approach even to brand campaigns—traditionally considered 'softer' marketing.

7. Rethinking Agency Compensation Models (12:30–13:20)

• Benzik strongly advocates for outcomes-based agency compensation:

  "The modern agency will move to that...brands should want more of that accountability and focus more on a true outcomes-based model versus just a percent of media." (Andrea Benzik, 12:49)

  • Predicts agencies will need the discipline and confidence in results to make this shift.

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Notable Quotes

• On agency agility as an asset:

  "We're at the prime Goldilocks stage—big enough to be relevant and scale, but not so big that we can't be agile." (Andrea Benzik, 01:46)

• On client priorities:

  "If you don’t drive the outcomes, it doesn’t really matter." (Andrea Benzik, 03:22)

• AI as a tool, not a decision-maker:

  "AI is very powerful at repeating what it already knows, but recognizing the nuance, it doesn’t do well. That’s where you really want the thinker..." (Andrea Benzik, 08:42)

• Integrating science into branding:

  "Every five points of increased in the care index results in 10% increase in revenue." (Andrea Benzik, 11:54)

• The future of agency compensation:

  "The modern agency will move to [outcomes-based compensation]...brands should want more of that accountability." (Andrea Benzik, 12:49)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [01:40] Life as an independent agency in a disrupted ad landscape
• [02:18–03:37] Technology strategy: build vs. buy, with a focus on data and outcomes
• [07:09–08:42] Wpromote’s use of AI: freeing humans for strategy, not for full automation
• [09:22–10:38] Implementing AI agents—practicalities, control, and restoring expertise
• [10:42–12:30] The Care Index: scientific measurement for brand outcomes
• [12:30–13:20] Will agencies move to outcomes-based compensation?

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Memorable Moments

• Wpromote's pragmatic stance on AI platforms: Explicit focus on results and selective automation, instead of matching industry hype.
• Acquisition of Giant Spoon: Demonstrates real strategic integration, not just surface-level capability, and reflects a seriousness about full-funnel marketing.
• Care Index Launch: Data-driven brand measurement tied directly to revenue—a rare quantification of brand equity.
• Cautious optimism about AI replacing manual processes, but not human strategic judgment.

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Conclusion

This episode offers a master class in how progressive independent agencies can thrive amid massive technological and market change—by focusing on outcomes, integrating brand and performance strategies, and using AI to complement (not replace) human expertise. For agencies and brands alike, the message is clear: technological tools are only as valuable as the business results they deliver.

Transcript

[Mike Shields]

Creative generation. Everybody's in a different spectrum there. Where are you in both those fronts?

[Andrea Benzik]

Yeah, there's so much data that you get from various platforms. So if you're wanting to get to insights quickly, leveraging the power of AI to kind of consolidate a lot of that information to make us smarter is one. But the key strategy and thinking, you're not going to be able to rely on AI to do that. So what we're really investing is how do we. We call it removing the busy work. So the components that are kind of viewed as busy work let AI really lean into that to give room and space for the bigger thinking and strateg that's involved.

[Podcast Host / Narrator]

This episode is brought to you by Creator TV by sabio. Creator led Entertainment is moving from the feed to the tv. And Creator TV is leading the shift with free streaming channels, original series, on demand programming and live creator sports. For brands, that means new ways to reach passionate audiences through culturally relevant entertainment. From high impact CTV media and integrations to event sponsorships, Creator live TV spots and social extensions, bring your brand into the creator led TV era. @creatortv.com this week on Nexting Media, I chatted with Andrea Benzik, CEO of the digital marketing agency Wpromote. On the ground in Cannes, Andrew and I discussed life as an indie agency just as all the major holding companies are trying to become AI platforms. We talked about W promote's heritage as a performance shop and how that colors their approach to the broader media landscape and whether the ad agency world needs to rethink its compensation models.

[Mike Shields]

Let's get started.

[Podcast Host / Narrator]

Hi everybody.

[Mike Shields]

Welcome to Nexting Media. I'm Mike Shields. We're shooting live here in Cannes. I'm here with my guest Andrea Benzik. She's the CEO of wpromote. Hey Andrea, thanks for being here.

[Andrea Benzik]

Thank you for having me.

[Mike Shields]

So it's an interesting time right now, right with the. The agency model going through so many changes and so much change at the holding company.

[Podcast Host / Narrator]

What's life?

[Andrea Benzik]

Right.

[Mike Shields]

Life right now as an independent, I'd

[Andrea Benzik]

say life is really about probably more than ever opportunity for the independent. There's a lot of disruption happening. Not only industry rise with what technology is doing, but also a lot of what's happening with the hold codes. So there's entryways for us to be considered where maybe we weren't considered in the past. So we're really excited about. I think we're kind of at the prime Goldilocks stage where we're big enough to be relevant and scale, but we're not so big that we can't be agile. And so see it as a really key opportunity to take advantage of kind of the disruption that's happening in the market.

[Mike Shields]

What about the holdcos are all touting these huge investments in data platforms, building their AI platforms as if that's sort of the only way to work for the future. Do you guys feel pressure to match that or is that not realistic or does that not really make sense right now?

[Andrea Benzik]

Definitely don't feel the pressure to match it. I came from technology, so I understand the space and I understand the level of investments that's needed if you want to do a homegrown platform. Technology is very much a part of what we do and how we do things. So we have our own technology platform. But really it's being super intentional and disciplined on what does it need to be for us. So for us it's a lot of it's measurement and data. So how do we bring data together to get insights really, really quickly and then partnering with other technology partners within the key executional components. So really having a discipline around what do we really need to build versus that we can partner and how we bring that to.

[Mike Shields]

Because everybody there's almost like you have to say that you're using some proprietary AI platform or you're not doing something right. There's not a need for that necessarily.

[Andrea Benzik]

I think at the end of the day, our clients and brands are really looking for outcomes and confidence in dollars and how you doing that and delivering that, they probably don't care as much. So we could talk platform all day. At the end of the day, if you don't drive the outcomes, it doesn't really matter.

[Mike Shields]

I mean, you said it, you guys are out or have a performance background. That's your heritage. Right? But you're obviously expanding beyond that. What are some advantages and disadvantages of starting from that place?

[Andrea Benzik]

I think the key advantage is that a lot of what the industry is demanding they probably did. But even more so is being able to understand and see outcomes directly correlated to every dollar that they're spending from a performance background. We've always known that accountability, that idea of accountability around every dollar is just inherent to how we always had to do business.

[Podcast Host / Narrator]

Right.

[Andrea Benzik]

So that's definitely an advantage. The disadvantage is a lot of the brands think are also asking. They don't want to have to be working with two different partners necessarily. They want to be able to do kind of the brand strategy with the performance all in one, which is why we acquired a giant spoon. So we recognize that getting that credibility in brand. We could try and hire people who underst that but it's a lot more difficult to get credibility in that space if you've always been a performance player. Right. Which is one of the key reasons why we made the decision that we really had to buy that capability.

[Mike Shields]

All right, so yeah, you've, you've let me one of my questions. Give, just give us, I think I know Giant Spoon because they did a very famous activation at top by. But tell us who they were and give us like what the background on that deal and how they're being folded into the mix.

[Andrea Benzik]

Yeah. So they're definitely known. They've done big experiential and they're known for those moments which makes them really strong. Maybe not as common. They really kind of were that big experiential but brand strategy and creative as well as upper funnel media. So that. And it was pretty even split of all of them. So they weren't just all one. They kind of had those three components starting from the experiential strategy then to kind of upper funnel media. So that was a really complimentary us coming with kind of the performance aspect. It just was a really good. Not a lot of overlap, but just very complimentary in terms of reading.

[Mike Shields]

So you could try and build that

[Andrea Benzik]

and you could try and build that. I just think it would take the amount of time that it would take to gain credibility because every client when you come in, even if they believe that they like you and they believe that, you know you want to try and do it right, that's maybe too much of a risk.

[Mike Shields]

It's still your first time doing. They're taking a flyer on that. Your capability.

[Andrea Benzik]

Right. And so now we say we have the experts with us. So they have experts on both sides. They get, you know, the experts in the big, you know, best in class creative and they're also getting best in class performance showing up as one team to solve their a brand challenge.

[Charlie Ibarra]

I'm here with Charlie Ibarra.

[Mike Shields]

He's the co founder and head of content at Creator Television. Charlie, tell me about the creator ad spot and why it's an important evolution of the traditional TV commercial.

[Charlie Ibarra]

Yeah. The creator ad spot is a creator led approach to television advertising. Traditionally, when creators appear in TV commercials, they're often suit to cast as talent. With the creator ad spot, they become creative partners helping develop, produce and star in the work that allows brands to combine the reach and impact of streaming television with the authenticity and deep audience resonance creators bring.

[Mike Shields]

Okay, so what is A creator ad spot unlock for brands and what makes creator Television uniquely positioned to deliver for brands?

[Charlie Ibarra]

It unlocks advertising that feels more culturally relatable and native to how audiences consume content today. Reach Champagne can also extend beyond CTV through a companion social post from the creator. Creator Television brings together deep creator relationships, television profession expertise, and sabio's advanced CTV audience targeting technology, allowing us to pair the right creator and message of the right audience.

[Mike Shields]

Terrific. Thanks, Charlie. Coming back to the AI conversation, of course there's a lot of, you know, there's obviously a lot of excitement around it. Some. Some caution how far everyone has a different place where they're going in terms of how fast are you using AI for media optimization and planning? Some say that's going to be fully automated, no people ever. And some are kind of in a different place. And of course with creative generation, everybody's in a different spectrum there. Where are you in both those fronts?

[Andrea Benzik]

Yeah. So we're already leaning into it really heavy on both the execution as well as leveraging it to. There's so much data that you get from various platforms. So if you're wanting to get to insights quickly, leveraging the power of AI to kind of consolidate a lot of that information, information to make us smarter is one I'd say execution, both from a buying perspective and even could be used creatively in production, we think that's a great place to leverage AI. But the key strategy and thinking, I don't think that you're not going to be able to rely on AI to do that. So what we're really investing is how do we. We call it removing the busy work. So the components that are kind of viewed as busy work let AI really lean into that to give room and space for the bigger thinking and strategy that's involved.

[Mike Shields]

So is that the ext. I wonder, are brands sort of on board with let's get rid of all the grunt work. I'm with you on that. But are they drawing a line? I still want to control when we make a transaction. I still want to control when we put a new ad out there. Is that sort of the line?

[Andrea Benzik]

I think there should then, and I believe there should be because AI and technology is very powerful at kind of repeating what it already knows, but recognizing the nuance, it doesn't do well. And so that's where you really want the thinker to. You want it to put together and kind of provide a potential answer and then you want the thinking person to understand the nuance of what's specific to a brand. What's specific to what's going on that potentially there needs to be adjustments. So there may be some adjustments that you can always make and allows you to do that. But I found even in other areas where technology is just left to their own, you're probably going to make it wrong. And sometimes it gets there fast. And it could get to a great answer fast or to a big mistake fast too.

[Mike Shields]

On that note, besides everyone's exuberance around AI, everyone's throwing agendik into the next. Whether it's, you know, experimental or real or not. For you guys is a gentic a thing like are you actually using agents to buy and plan or is it something that you're testing? Where does that stand?

[Andrea Benzik]

It's definitely part of what we are already doing. We're leveraging partners like smartly for some of that to do some of the buying. And those tools are all developing. So we're, I would consider ourselves early adopters of it. We've also started a program just in terms of not just buying but every process that we have within the agency. So we hired a team of they're very young, but they're very AI native to just find different aspects of our organization to understand how are we actually doing the work today and is there a way to identify some of what we do? It'll never replace all of the people, but it's just say how do we almost rehire? I think media has gotten so complex and the buying of it has gotten so complex that we've lost. By doing it manually, you lose a lot of why you hired the people that you hired and the expertise that they have. And so we see it as like we're rehiring that back because we're able.

[Mike Shields]

You're freeing up all that time. But, but the agents are not running wild yet and making decisions. Oh, absolutely.

[Andrea Benzik]

No, no, no, no, no. It's, it's. I would say it's very intentional and controlled.

[Mike Shields]

Right. Getting back to your, you know, giants. Boo. And your recent acquisition, has that changed how you think about you? You, you mentioned you're out. You've always been outcomes driven. How does it change the way you think about measurement? Can you bring a little bit of an outcomes based mentality to what it would be typically brand measurement for those kind of clients?

[Andrea Benzik]

Yeah, we absolutely do. We actually even last week we launched something that we a proprietary way of kind of studying and diagnosing a brand called the Care Index. And we did it in partnership with Northwestern. And so it gives us a data driven way to really assess a brand and where they're at. So if you think of a brand's journey could be, you know, your audience knows you, likes you, cares about you and every brand has a different aspect of where they're strong. So we can measure that against their category. So it helps us get very, very specific as to what's the problem to solve for that particular brand. But since we have that mechanism that we measured, we can then follow that through as we put things in place. And this, what we've seen so far, early testing with clients is every five points of increased in the care index results in 10% increase in revenue. So that's highly, highly.

[Mike Shields]

You could bring some science and some qualitative research to. It was always sort of as like maybe softer kind of metrics.

[Andrea Benzik]

Yes. And we can provide that confidence and be bullish in this is what we think we can do when we, this is why we're recommending the strategy. This is what we believe the outcome is. And then so it starts, it has a science to it when we start. And then as we actually implement the strategy that we recommend, we have mechanisms because we've always, always in performance that's very natural that we can measure it to say did that actually happen? If there's anything that needs to be, you know, shifted or iterated on, we have, we can understand that quickly.

[Mike Shields]

Lastly, Andrea, over the years there's always, there's always been talk about whether, you know, is the agency model, the way the agencies get compensated going to change? Should it, should it be tied to performance or not? With the heavy outcomes focus these days, like do you, is there more renewed interest in that or something you're thinking about?

[Andrea Benzik]

Absolutely. And I think the modern agency will move to that. I found the same when I was in technology. It's maybe even a scary move for agencies because you have to have a confidence in what you're doing that you're actually going to achieve those outcomes. I do believe it's possible. And how do you have that discipline and build that confidence? But I do believe the agency of the future and brands should, they should want more of that accountability and focus more on a true outcomes based model versus just a percent of media.

[Mike Shields]

Well, that will be a big fundamental change if we see it. So fascinating, fascinating to watch. Thank you so much for your time here.

[Andrea Benzik]

Thank you for having me.

[Podcast Host / Narrator]

Thanks again. And my guest this week W promotes Andrea Benzik and my partners at sabio. If you like this week's episode, please take a moment to rate and leave a review. We have lots more to bring you, so please hit that subscribe button. We'll see you next time for more on what's next in media.

[Mike Shields]

Thanks for listening.