Advertising vets MT Carney and Andrew Essex add four more firms to their ad holding company Plan A, boosting its headcount to 280 and revenue to $50 million

• New York-based ad holding company Plan A, run by advertising vets MT Carney and Andrew Essex, added four more agencies: Design agency Tether, digital shop Chapter, gaming-centric firm TwoFiveSix, and PR firm The New New Thing.
• The additions bring Plan A's portfolio to nine firms, 280 employees, and $50 million in revenue, Essex said.
• Clients and agency members of Plan A said its approach of combining independent agencies with centralized account management and strategy was working. But competition is intensifying.
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Plan A, the New York-based boutique ad holding company run by advertising vets MT Carney and Andrew Essex, has added four firms for a total of nine, broadening its geographical footprint and services.

The four are Stanley Hainsworth's Seattle-based design agency Tether, Gareth Kay and Neil Robinson's San Francisco-based digital shop Chapter, Jamin Warren's Los Angeles-based gaming-centric firm TwoFiveSix, and PR vet Brooke Hammerling's firm The New New Thing.

While the agencies that initially joined Plan A swapped their equity for equity in Plan A, the four new agencies opted in based on a set of mutually agreed upon terms. The idea is that together they can command a higher value in the marketplace as opposed to individually, and that each firm would get a share of the proceeds if it were to sell.

Plan A also has creative and strategy firm Untitled Worldwide, branded entertainment and experiential marketing firm Van's General Store, production company Helo, fashion advertising firm Twin Studio, and social media agency Beekman Social.

The addition of the four firms expands Plan A to 280 employees and its revenue to $50 million, Essex said.

"We like to think of ourselves as the 'Ocean's 11' of marketing services," Essex said. "Just as the principals come together and get a safecracker, we're trying to assemble a SWAT team to offer all the capabilities that a modern client wants - and that's pretty unique proposition."

Plan A is trying to create a new kind of holding company

Carney, the former marketing president at Walt Disney Studios and founding partner of Untitled Worldwide, and Essex, the former Tribeca Film Festival and Droga5 CEO, launched Plan A in 2018 with backing from CAA founder Michael Ovitz and MediaLink CEO Michael Kassan, who are strategic investors and senior advisors.

Plan A pitches itself as a new kind of ad agency holding company, with specialist agencies that operate independently but have centralized account management and strategy so they can share resources but retain their own culture.

"If the strategy is centralized in one place, then you're not wasting time herding cats and everybody's working off the same song sheet," Carney told Business Insider. "And because everybody has bought into one way of doing things, you don't duplicate the cost, and it saves the clients money."

Clients and agency members say the approach is working

Plan A has companies including Facebook, IBM, JP Morgan Chase, and Spotify as clients, and said its model is working for them. As an example, it pointed to a Halloween-themed campaign it did for Hulu in 2019 called "Huluween" where Helo built a haunted house and Beekman handled the social media.

Bob Lord, SVP of cognitive applications at IBM, said Plan A's executive team drew him to the firm when he needed to communicate IBM's message of ease of use to developers. He said it was "incredibly helpful to be interfacing with the likes of MT and get her perspective, rather than with someone just out of college" as was often the case at other agencies.

Some agency founders said that they were drawn to Plan A because of Essex and Carney's connections and clients. Tether's Hainsworth said he was drawn to the opt-in nature of the arrangement.

"The opportunities for growth, where we can tap into existing relationships and pool resources to service clients, are endless," said The New New Thing's Hammerling.

Plan A faces plenty of competition across the board

A year and a half into Plan A's run, the ad industry continues to go through massive shifts. Big brands are publicly criticizing traditional agency models, holding companies are consolidating, and marketers are looking to cut out middlemen.

That means Plan A's competition is intensifying, with players like S4, You and Mr. Jones, and Dawn Marketing challenging ad holding companies by promising marketers faster and leaner approaches.

And in September, the boutique agency Badger & Winters left Plan A after less than a year.

Carney and Essex acknowledged that not everyone is a good fit.

"It was incredibly valuable lesson for both parties - surely everyone's been in a relationship that hasn't worked out," Essex said. "Some things are not a fit, but given the number we have, the track record or the success average is still pretty high."

Plan A execs said they would look to add more specialized agencies. They also didn't rule out becoming a part of a larger platform or being acquired by a management consultancy, following in Droga5's footsteps.

"We're not finished yet, but it's starting to feel really quite substantial," Essex said. "We have maybe one or two missing capabilities, which we will fill soon."