The Death of Big Agencies: Small Creative Teams Are Winning
Over a decade ago, I was a temp at Reebok, sitting in a cold editing room (“The Cave”) that most people would forget. Then one day the innovation team asked their agency for a video to pitch an important product. The agency charged a massive fee and worked at a snail’s pace. With the deadline approaching and their nerves stretched thin, someone from the team walked over to my desk and asked the temp to give it a shot. I stayed late, pulled together an edit, and made something authentic, human, and fast. When the team compared both videos, they chose mine over the agency’s. That moment changed the way I thought about creativity and business. It was proof that speed, authenticity, and resourcefulness beat big, slow, and expensive every single time. It also planted the seed of what has now become my bias (and business philosophy): in today’s world, small, high-functioning creative teams are more valuable than lumbering agencies.
Why This Matters More Than Ever Today
Back then, social media was still growing into its power. Today, it’s arguably the single most important driver of marketing and sales. It shapes how customers discover products, how they build trust with brands, and how they decide to buy. And yet, many companies still spend enormous sums on a few polished campaigns, hoping a single piece of content will carry the weight. That gamble is outdated. Social media doesn’t reward “once in a while.” It rewards consistency, volume, and authenticity.
That’s where small teams shine.
Photographing Yo-Yo Ma in a small studio in Cambridge after filming an interview.
What Small Creative Teams Deliver That Agencies Can’t
Authenticity at scale. Social audiences smell “manufactured” from a mile away. Smaller crews blend into the fabric of real life, capturing moments people actually connect with.
Speed. When trends shift daily (sometimes hourly), waiting weeks for an agency edit is simply not an option.
Flexibility. Agile teams pivot in real time without throwing budgets or timelines off course.
Lower risk, lower cost. Brands can test, iterate, and scale without betting the house on one big roll of the dice.
This isn’t about cutting corners—it’s about working in a way that matches the speed and psychology of how people actually consume content today.
The Smarter Question Brands Are Asking
Not long ago, marketing teams obsessed over the size of the crew and the weight of the production budget. Bigger meant better. Now, the smartest brands are asking a different question:
“How fast, how real, and how often can we connect with our audience?”
The answer rarely comes from an agency sending a 15-person crew and a half-million-dollar invoice. More often than not, it comes from a lean, highly effective team that knows how to work fast, stay real, and use new technology to punch far above its weight.
Letting the kids take over filming with my camera in Rwanda.
My Take
I’m biased, of course. This is how I’ve built my career and my company. But it’s honest. The Reebok story wasn’t just a lucky break—it was the first glimpse of a creative truth I’ve seen play out again and again for brands, nonprofits, and cultural institutions across the world.
In a world where the feed resets every 24 hours, it’s not the big, slow, and expensive who win. It’s the small, fast, and resourceful.
