VoxComm Exchange:
Let's Talk About the New
Agency Model

Thank you for joining this one. We've deliberately kept the panel small and the calibre high — the industry, the client, the holding company and the independent view. We think that mix makes for the most interesting version of this conversation happening at Cannes this year.

01 — The essentials

When, where & how it runs

02 — Who's in the room

Your fellow panellists

Giorgos Vareloglou — Moderator

Co-founder & CEO, REBORRN

REBORRN is a consultancy that works inside global marketing organisations — Coca-Cola, Carlsberg Group, PMI, L'Oréal, Microsoft, Google — on transformation. Giorgos writes on how marketing organisations need to change in the AI era, which makes him neither agency nor brand, but someone who sees both sides of the table.

Charley Stoney

CEO, EACA & President, VoxComm

The convening voice of the global agency industry and the author of the report that frames this discussion. Charley opens the session with the paper.

Opens the session

Patricia Corsi

Global Chief Marketing & Growth Officer, Kimberly-Clark

One of the world's most awarded and respected marketers (previously Bayer, Heineken, Unilever), known for courageous, creativity-led growth — and currently leading the integration of Kenvue and Kimberly-Clark, designing a marketing organisation in real time.

The client's-eye view

Justin Thomas-Copeland

CEO, the 4A's

An operator before an institution-builder — former CEO of DDB North America, Omnicom Health and Rapp, and founder of consultancy Kindrd Global — now reinventing the US agency association as a product- and AI-driven platform for its members.

The optimist-builder

Floriane Tripolino

CEO, WPP Open X

Leads WPP's dedicated team for The Coca-Cola Company, building one of the industry's most closely watched AI-powered operating models, following her transformation of WPP's partnership with Nestlé.

The future-at-scale

Want a one-pager on any fellow panellist before the day? Just ask — happy to share.

03 — Theme & the paper

What we're talking about

The conversation starts from VoxComm's new report, “Redesigning the Agency Value Model” (written by Brian Kessman of Lodestar, foreword by Tim Williams of Ignition, introduction by Charley Stoney).

Download the full paper →

The TL;DR

• →The agency business model — built on billing time and effort — is increasingly out of sync with how work actually gets done.
• →AI breaks effort-based pricing: as AI compresses the hours, pricing on effort means you look less valuable to the buyer the better and faster you get.
• →The economics show the strain: industry margins have fallen from ~30% in advertising's golden age to ~10% today, with revenue per head far below client-side and tech benchmarks.
• →The proposed fix: stop selling hours, start selling solutions — codify expertise into repeatable, often AI-enabled offerings, and price on outcomes and impact, not inputs.
• →The paper maps four agency "value models" (from Busy by Design to Distinctly Scalable) and argues the prize is a more profitable, more respected, more creative industry.

“You're not in the service business; you're in the business of solving business problems.”

04 — The angle & run of show

How the conversation flows

05 — Help us make it travel

Promotion

We're treating this as a moment, not just a session. If you can post once before Cannes, it genuinely lifts attendance and reach for all of us.

Register & invite your network →

Theme / hashtag: #MarketersDeserveBetter · Tag the others (and each other):

Suggested LinkedIn copy — yours to make your own

06 — Film & reels

Content for your channels

We'll have a film crew capturing the session. Afterwards, we'll cut a set of short reels and share them with you to choose from and post to your own channels — a clean, high-quality clip of you making your point, ready to go. Nothing is published without you having your moment in hand first. If you have brand or comms guidelines we should respect for your clips, send them our way.