A note from our founder Shane Atchison
Six months ago, I was at a crossroads.
The conversation around AI was reaching a boiling point, and my biggest question was how to best use this new technology to bring seismic change to marketing—the industry I’m proud to have grown up in, but that's been on its heels in recent years.
The new ideas and capabilities reminded me of the feeling I had when the internet emerged: I knew it would change the world, but I wasn’t clear on how or when. Just like with the internet, it was clear AI requires leaders to be curious and build new mental muscle to imagine what’s possible. To form a POV even before our own organizations are ready. So, I got to work. I quit my job and set out on a mission.
In one hundred days, I logged one hundred conversations about Artificial Intelligence and talent trends.
When I asked people working in big holding companies about their career prospects, it was painful to hear story after story from some of the smartest people I know who no longer feel any degree of loyalty from their organizations. So many rounds of layoffs, cost cutting, return-to-work mandates, and management silencing brilliant voices with a push to stop thinking and bill more hours. Loyalty to people who spent decades being loyal to their company went out the window without even a thank you email. More stories of looking at the vibrant global talent network outside of the US and attaching condescending labels like “low-cost” and “near-shore” when we’ve all learned people now prefer to work from home, anyway.
I walked away from those conversations convinced that any brand investing in an expensive holding company retainer can no longer expect ROI from that relationship. The single thing that matters for smart, strategic work—an experienced and curious agency team—is sold by holding companies but no longer delivered.
When the conversations turned to AI, I expected to hear plenty of doom and gloom. But I heard many don’t know enough about AI to know what to fear. And plenty of others are already using the technology in experimental but valuable ways, including:
One leader is already using AI to improve their 360 review process to quickly collect data, remove bias from the process, and produce fairer, faster, and more helpful results to help their team’s careers. Isn’t that something—a machine helping them to act more human?
A CMO using OpenAI to create a better QBR process, collecting years of data to allow the management team to test theories for the next quarter via chatbot and receive instant predictions on impact and level of effort. The outcome was better than what both humans and machines could do on their own.
As we expanded on those ideas, the ideas kept flowing, uncovering the potential for valuable marketing AI workflows, including:
Machines building rapid prototypes and storyboards to craft narratives, scenes, and scripts.
Brand standards translated into brand prompts via chatbot interfaces.
Job descriptions deconstructed into workflows, identifying repeatable mundane tasks to automate and give humans back time to think strategically.
Powerful new B2B data signals for Ideal Client Profile identification and targeting.
Humans in the loop, overseeing and refining machine work to teach them how the brand writes, speaks, and acts.
Using AI not only to digest past information for quick summaries and actionable insights, but predictive algorithms to forecast and generate new strategies.
And so many more.
What I learned has changed my outlook on the change our marketing industry needs. And I’ve realized this is the perfect moment to rethink our work, our teams, our capabilities, and our communities.
The perfect time to start something new.
Today, we’re announcing our new company. Zaaz.co enables people and organizations to maximize their impact through a balance of human and machine collective intelligence. We’re a marketing product and services company built to serve today’s modern business leaders.
Our company is based on a mission and vision that can only come from a company born in 2024 with a new approach to a new world:
Culture at our core. With every company I’ve started, culture has been the first page of the business plan. Zaaz.co is bringing together people who are proud to be the best in the world at their craft with grace and a hunger for learning. We want our people to be happy and enjoy their workdays. To live balanced lives, for whatever balance means to each person. To have space to take risks. To hone their POVs based on deep experience and a constant pull of curiosity. We’ve created an environment where our people can perform, learn, and grow like never before, with values like integrity, boldness, truth, and accountability. We’re organized in a new distributed model, like a modern company should be, with frequent gatherings in new locations to share, learn, and plan with our partners and clients.
Creatively born in Brazil, working with the world’s best creative talent at 50% of the cost. Our team is distributed by design, with a 30/70 split of US-based and worldwide talent. Our first creative hub in Sao Paulo taps into the pride and talent of world-class creatives. Why Brazil? If you look at the last twenty years of Cannes Lions award and the scale of the creative talent in Sao Paulo alone, the answer becomes clear. Why not fuse the world’s best creative with the best economics for marketing leaders? The old agencies won’t offer you an approach like this because they can’t.
Embracing AI workflows & best practices, we help modern marketers scale their impact. In the essential book The Innovator’s Dilemma, Clay Christenson examines how big companies are disincentivized to embrace disruptive forces. There’s no better example than how the current collection of holding companies in the agency world are treating AI. They’ve realized their current business models won’t support the efficiencies of a modern approach. Has your agency called a meeting to offer you a 50% discount on your retainer lately? We didn’t think so. Big change almost never happens at big companies—that’s why we built Zaaz.co from the ground up at this moment, for this moment. To boost your organization’s capabilities while learning and growing the next generation of marketing leaders (that’s you.)
Our new approach—Collective Intelligence—finds the optimal balance of people and machines working together. Get ready to use your brain again. This is the moment to design how humans and machines can work together to make the most of human ingenuity and the scale and speed only technology can deliver. We’ll see the outcomes in our daily lives: better meetings, smarter planning, faster and more accurate targeting and media plans. We expect our jobs to look different in a few years, not because machines have taken our jobs from us, but because we’ve redesigned our roles so that our minds can work on the problems that matter while AI takes care of the rest. Better accessibility, less bias, more personalization, and faster timelines.
Zaaz.co offers the products and services modern marketers need: Creative Campaigns, B2B, Digital & AI Transformation, Marketing AI Education & Community, Data, Strategy, Experience & Creative, Media, Digital Events, Sales Enablement, and ABM. The world’s first marketing best practices LLM. And much more.
I started this journey with one hundred conversations and want to continue with the next hundred. Let’s talk more about how we can work together. We want your agency RFPs to show you what this new model can do.
In the meantime, please sign up for our new marketing and education series—webinars, podcasts, newsletters—all about the marketing AI opportunity.
We can’t wait to show you what we can do.
-Shane Atchison
Announcing:
We enable people and organizations to maximize their impact through a balance of human and machine collective intelligence. We’re a marketing product and services company built to serve today’s modern business leaders.
Born in 2024.
Born with the machine to augment marketers to next-level productivity, impact, and scale.
Born creatively centered in Sao Paulo, Brazil with 18M+ passionate creatives.
Zaaz.co delivers the products and services modern marketers need: B2B, Digital & AI Transformation, Marketing AI Education & Community, Data, Strategy, Experience & Creative, Media, Digital Events, Sales Enablement, and ABM.
Partner with Zaaz.co to:
Replace your current agency and drive massive efficiencies.
Find your optimal workflow of people and machines, a process we call Collective Intelligence.
Realize 50% lower cost with a 50% increase in speed through our 70/30 delivery model, boosting output and marketing agility.
Work with the world’s best talent integrated with AI marketing best practices.
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