In times of crisis, our first instinct is to slow down. If it’s a global pandemic, it may feel more like “come to a screeching halt.” It makes sense, right? The road is unknown, things are changing quickly, and plowing ahead may set you up for an unplanned cliff dive. But standing still can be just as dangerous, and a few months of non-movement as a business can leave you years if not decades behind. So it’s eyes up and forward march. But why is it that some companies seem to be better at adapting to the changing landscape than others? 

A few months ago, I was reflecting on my work experience and observations born largely from working with West Coast versus East Coast clients. My experience over decades of working with established blue chip companies (think at least 100 years old) was that they tended to favor rigor and, not surprisingly, logic in driving sound decisions. When I transitioned to working for more West Coast companies (think 20 years old or younger) there was an almost opposite dynamic. These companies seemed comfortable working within ambiguity, and the trick was figuring out how to do great work within that ambiguity instead of seeking to eradicate it. 

Here’s the thing: both are right. There’s a benefit to guidelines and process just as there’s an advantage to innovation and risk-taking.  When I see companies thrive in times of uncertainty, young and old, it’s because they’ve taken lessons from both ends of the spectrum. In short, they’ve created a framework for ambiguity. By working with ambiguity in a systematic way, they’re providing the checks and balances necessary to correct direction as needed while still continuing their momentum. They’re meeting ambiguity with increased velocity. 

Meeting ambiguity with increased velocity in a thoughtful, systematic way is the key to successfully navigating a rapidly changing landscape. If I knew it a few months ago I definitely know it now, even as the notion of “ambiguity” has taken on an entirely new resonance. There’s something emotionally comforting in finding that some of the same tools still apply, and that my natural propensity to take action (fly by the seat of my pants?) is still as good a bet as any. So I thought I would share some of the steps I’ve learned along the way. 

If you’re ready to make friends with ambiguity, here’s how to get started.

The goal here is to embrace the ambiguity, but still be disciplined enough to define a singular problem that you are trying to solve. In reality, the challenge in front of you may be multidimensional, but sometimes you just need to define one dimension to move forward. I often found that in organizations that move quickly, the problem state is either broadly defined or often wrongly stated. If you interrogate the stated problem and relate it back to either a business challenge or a customer need, you’ll get a pretty good sense of whether it is the right problem to run at or not. And if you do identify multiple problems—prioritize. There’s usually a sequence where solving one will naturally begin to unlock the others.

Hypothesizing is my BFF. It is a really critical tool in beginning to address “velocity”—allowing a team to move quickly through relative ambiguity to still deliver great work. Today, there are more tools that allow you to get both quant and qual research fairly quickly, making the chances of true insight much more likely. But even if you aren’t able to do any primary research, fast synthesis of past learning and current landscape dynamics can still generate enough to help you hypothesize. I find that “narrative hypothesizing” where you build out a story or argument is really helpful. You learn quickly whether the argument can hold water, or whether it’s a weak hypothesis and you need to keep working.



One of the hardest parts about working in ambiguity is the natural desire to want to work sequentially. Ah, if only this were possible in every circumstance. But this is where the idea of “velocity” becomes even more important. It’s counter-intuitive to start on creative solutions before strategy is fully baked, or perhaps before insights are identified. But if you’ve done the hypothesizing, you have enough of a framework to understand what to create, and also where to modify when you need to (which you likely will.) My creative colleagues have become adept at understanding that much of the work they begin to develop will never see the light of day, because strategy work is happening in parallel. The creative work may not be bad, it may just prove to be “wrong” once strategy gets farther along. It takes a pretty amazing dose of confidence coupled with a rare lack of ego to really make this work. My hats off to our creative teams everyday for their winning combo in driving with velocity.



Sometimes I forget how comfortable I’ve become working in ambiguity. As new team members join projects for our clients, I’m reminded of just how overwhelming it can feel at first. And that’s where trust comes in. This style of work can take a lot out of you. But it can also be energizing and incredibly exciting. I remain in awe of the rabbits I see my colleagues pulling out of hats every…single…week. And I believe it’s because we’ve built a culture of trust that allows people to work this quickly, fail together, rebuild and build again. Trust is built from each discipline in the group bringing their best, and trusting in the rest of the team to do the same. Generally, there is at least one team member (from strategy or account) who is responsible for keeping the hypothesis thread in mind. They keep the team focused or re-focus as work develops. The lack of ego comes into play when it’s time to tweak, or even abandon good ideas that no longer serve the hypothesis. Having a shared goal, in a high degree of ambiguity, while working with velocity makes this kind of trust a necessity. Ideas are fragile, and they need care when they are being discarded or rebuilt. When you see creative leads who really know how to do this well, and validate the intent (if not the final idea) you see how valuable and motivating that skill is. Be a builder.

These four lessons have helped me and my teams deliver some of the work that I am most proud of, and have kept me nimble and flexible as a leader. When I think about the ambiguity we’re all living through right now, the language we tend to see is largely around inertia. And while it’s true that we must stay home to stay safe, it’s also true that our brains are free to roam. Defining problems, hypothesizing insights, breaking white paper and being a builder are tools I’ll use personally and professionally to help navigate these strange times we’re in. If we’re lucky, perhaps we can turn some of that inertia into ingenuity.


Meeting ambiguity with velocity

2020-04-16-1

We are entering a new age of brand importance. Companies today face endless channel opportunities and customer journey interactions—all at a lightning fast pace, and at a time when the traditional advertising model has been upended. Though this was already happening, the past year has amplified it tenfold, prompting companies to increase the velocity with which they implement digital strategies to meet the market’s needs. Companies are conflicted on where to focus their attention, and how to build a brand that is flexible enough to encompass all customer experiences without losing its sense of purpose. It’s a lot to take in, and requires a strategy adaptable and resilient enough to meet the challenges ahead.

In this environment, a hybrid approach to brand building can be a secret weapon. In our conversations with clients, we stress that velocity isn’t the issue—it’s whether the brand has embraced a hybrid approach in order to be more unified and effective.


All the technology, data, insights, channels and media in the world do not guarantee successful brands or effective marketing. In a commoditized world, brands are the vehicle to drive differentiation. But when agencies create brands, there tends to be a lot of focus on the delivery channels, so talk of “programmatic”, “performance”, “omni-channel” and other terms begin to dominate the conversation. A lot of this is the direct result of a permanent change to traditional advertising, and the rise of brand as the center point of the conversation. But you don’t see much on what it takes to create a resilient, engaging and effective brand. The realm of brand-building is too often seen as a logo exercise. But great brands are business assets, and as such, they need to be built from a business lens. 

Enter the Hybrid model.

The hybrid model focuses on solving a duality in every brand to ensure its success; *What is the business problem* and *what is the human problem?* When you solve for this duality, you can create brands that drive more valuable human experiences and catalyze growth. This is the next frontier of branding, and few are solving for it well.

We find that a lot of companies approach brand building from a singular audience or product perspective, or as mentioned earlier, from a channel view. Those that do so risk creating a brand that won’t have the relevance it needs to be successful. It may look beautiful, and the creative may be superlative—but if it doesn’t fundamentally help solve a business problem through a human lens, it’s not likely to resonate.

As a hybrid brand consultancy, we spend a lot of time partnering with our clients to ensure we’ve defined the business problem accurately, and really interrogated it. Is the business issue market share, is it product parity, is it lack of awareness, or a fragmented set of audiences? Honing in on the metrics that will actually drive the business helps us to understand how to best leverage the brand as a true business asset. We can then evolve or calibrate the brand to better deliver on that business goal. Sometimes we have a general idea, and we really use research to fundamentally dive in and test our hypothesis around the business problem itself. Other times, it’s not entirely clear why the brand isn’t delivering on the business intent. In those instances we work to understand what the perception gap is in the brand’s core promise vs. its market performance. 

And that’s where solving for the human problem comes into play—the second part of the hybrid approach. Once you’ve identified the business problem to solve, you start to look at your target audience through that lens, and it may change what levers you need to use to engage them. We all know that marketing can’t deliver differentiated experiences if you don’t understand your audience, their mindset, and the most important moments of impact for them. Consumers are less loyal, have higher expectations of personalization, and need brands to meet them on their terms. Once you have the business problem identified, you can go back and really understand the audience as it relates to that business issue. We seek to understand audiences holistically, as people, at the human level, which then helps us to identify all of the areas where the brand needs to show up, but more importantly, also the areas that are of highest value. Not all brand experiences are equal. 

When we solve for both the business problem and the human problem we design brand experiences to ensure that each interaction can stand on its own, but also fit into a broader ecosystem of interactions aligned to a brand’s core promise. Integration makes the brand story complete, preferences enduring, and business outcomes stronger.


It’s not just a hybrid model that helps to craft more effective brands. There’s an ongoing effort to break down silos in agencies and enable talent to really bring a fuller skillset to the table. It plays out at both the business and the cultural level. In our industry today you see ongoing agency consolidation, you see big consulting firms, traditionally focused on business transformation scooping up brand and marketing firms because they want to tap into the hybrid brand model. All of this in the quest for the right hybrid talent. 

At VSA, we’ve always had a hybrid sensibility. We like generalists and specialists alike, because ultimately we care the most about getting to the right idea. When you’re working in a hybrid model, your designers think like strategists, your writers think like designers, and so on. People tap into more of themselves, and it better fulfills their curiosity. They can major and minor at the same time, if you will. Experience has taught me that you’re able to really get the best talent out of your people by letting them bring their fullest selves to work. Egos get checked at the door, and good ideas can come from everywhere. I think this is not just where the future of brands is headed, but the future of work as well. It’s a cultural shift, and it’s one that is going to accelerate this new era of branding.


Getting more mileage out of your brand with a hybrid approach

Abstract art that looks something like amorphous mesh on an aqua-and-violet gradient background, alluding to the concept of hybridity

hybridimagery

VSA CEO Anne-Marie Rosser was recently published in Forbes magazine with her piece, "How To Accelerate Your Business During A Downturn." Check out an excerpt of the piece below, and [click here to read the full piece on Forbes.](https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2023/06/08/how-to-accelerate-your-business-during-a-downturn/?sh=5acfea2e219c)

The outlook for business right now can feel bleak. Few financial experts can agree on what the economy will look like in even one month. Prices are rising. Customers are nervous. And with such volatile economic headwinds, pulling back and waiting out the downturn might seem like a smart defense. But if we’re honest with ourselves as business leaders, we know that pulling back now is not a defense at all. It’s simply a form of paralysis.

As counterintuitive as it seems, I believe now is the time to play offense. And that doesn’t have to mean spending more. What it does mean, though, is acting bravely and reprioritizing your spend for better effect.

Throughout my decades of experience in the agency world, I’ve gotten insight into a wide range of companies and their tactics for navigating economic volatility. Often, we’ve been working right alongside them. The following tactics are certainly not an all-inclusive list, but they are the mindsets I’ve seen work time and again.

### Define Your Constraints

As I lead an agency that cut its teeth in design, I can tell you that designers appreciate constraints—and they’re not alone. Reflecting on your situation and defining the challenges you face is always the best place to start.

A macro example: Most companies have the dual challenge of needing to address both the acquisition of new clients and the retention and growth of existing clients in any given year. But this looks different based on industry and where the company is in its lifecycle, i.e., its circumstances.

Less mature companies or those that are less recession-proof might still need to drive acquisition as the primary focus. Resetting to metrics that drive acquisition in the near term can help focus on limited resources. Conversely, many companies find that retention becomes the primary focus. This move to retention might mean that the budget shifts to more high-touch activations, such as events and in-person workshops—face-to-face time with clients to deepen relationships.


[Click here to continue reading.](https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2023/06/08/how-to-accelerate-your-business-during-a-downturn/?sh=5acfea2e219c)

Anne-Marie Rosser Published on Forbes

AnneMarie-07-ColorWeb_edit_mrw

VSA CEO Anne-Marie Rosser was recently published in Forbes magazine with her piece, “Four Things Your Marketing Agency Wants You To Know About AI.” Check out an excerpt of the piece below, and [click here to read the full piece on Forbes](https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2023/10/04/four-things-your-marketing-agency-wants-you-to-know-about-ai/?sh=2b02284f7710).

To say that AI is top of mind for most business leaders feels like an understatement. A recent IBM study found that the [global AI adoption rate was 35% in 2022](https://www.ibm.com/downloads/cas/GVAGA3JP#:~:text=Around%20the%20world%2C%20the%20adoption,of%20AI%20is%20practically%20ubiquitous). And in Q3 2023, [the term “AI” was uttered an average of 3.7 times per S&P 500 analyst call](https://www.reuters.com/technology/companies-double-down-ai-june-quarter-analyst-calls-2023-07-31/#:~:text=The%20terms%20%22AI%22%20or%20%22,the%20same%20time%20last%20quarter)—more than double the previous quarter.

There’s a definite edge of panic to the excitement as companies jockey to showcase they’re incorporating the new tech into their operations and leaders scramble to forecast AI’s impact on their business. Meanwhile, pundits surround them, proclaiming that AI is either the next renaissance or the end of the world.

If you’re a business leader struggling to find your place in the AI discourse, my advice is this: Look to your marketing agency. Here’s why.

Agencies are used to helping businesses work through thorny problems, like cultural shifts, internal reorgs, M&As, new patterns and trends, and a constant drive toward growth. Clients come to them to get ahead or stay ahead, and a big part of that has always been figuring out how to leverage new technologies for a competitive advantage.

Agencies also have a unique finger on the cultural pulse, as they consistently work with different clients in different industries with different perspectives. This gives them a rare ecosystem of use cases, research and conversations that they can dissect and learn from.

As my own agency begins to help our clients create and implement AI strategies, there are four key pieces of advice that keep rising to the top. Here’s what we’ve been telling our clients:

### It’s OK to be a cautious adopter.
 
I’ve been seeing a lot of talk about how if your business doesn’t get into AI right now, you’re going to miss the boat and never get this chance back.

In the words of my colleague, “That’s not how technology works.” In fact, many successful businesses have found their way into emerging technologies by waiting until they stabilize, researching what people like and don’t like about their uses, and capitalizing on that experience to turn out superior products.

Plus, there are still a lot of things, from copyright laws to data protection, that don’t have the guardrails companies need to manage risk in AI adoption.

It’s OK to adopt AI in a way that makes sense for your business. If that means taking huge leaps because risk is in your DNA, great. If that means hanging back and watching what works and what doesn’t before investing, also great. Let your purpose—not the hype—drive your decision-making.

[Click here to continue reading](https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2023/10/04/four-things-your-marketing-agency-wants-you-to-know-about-ai/?sh=2b02284f7710).

Anne-Marie Rosser

Related Articles

Subscribe

Subscribe