“Given that the world is changing rapidly, the benefit is that they have no status to break, only rules to rewrite,” she says. The best way for an agency to help to build these type of brands is to be quick, agile, and in sync with who they are as a brand. “We immersed ourselves with them as a company. We set up shop at their offices and met everyone at Airbnb to truly understand the ethos of the company and how they operate.”

Starcom’s focus with this client has been centered around content creation and storytelling, rather than on flowcharts detailing reach and frequency, she says. More established brands can learn from these upstarts about how to be more agile and not be controlled by process, while newer brands can benefit by embracing process more, she says in explaining what newer and established brands can learn from each other.

Donohoue was interviewed by Beet.TV at the 4As’ (American Association of Advertising Agencies) Transformation 2015 event in Austin. Our coverage is sponsored by Videology.  Please find more coverage from the conference here.