Small by Design: Miles Marmo on Building a Boutique That Actually Wins

Описание: Miles Marmo spent years managing creative, media, and PR agencies from the brand side at Mark Anthony Group. The pattern he kept seeing was the same at every scale. Beautiful creative work that had no real connection to whether the business was actually growing. Agencies would pitch big ideas, win awards, move on. Meanwhile the brand team was left trying to figure out if any of it moved the needle on shelf presence, trial, or retention. So he built Agency Squid to close that gap. Based in Minneapolis, Squid operates as a hybrid: part business consultancy, part creative agency.

In this conversation with Adam Weil, Miles walks through what it took to build that model and why he chose to stay small on purpose. The goal is a team that's happy, work that's strong, and a business that's sustainable. Miles leans into Midwest work ethic as a genuine differentiator, not a talking point. His team operates with two expectations: when you're here, you sprint. And you communicate openly about what you need. That combination of intensity and transparency is how a flat organization moves fast enough to go toe to toe with shops three times their size.

Miles also talks through the turning point of embracing domain expertise instead of fighting it. Once he stopped resisting and started owning that depth, the business grew into adjacent categories naturally. The knowledge transfers. That domain credibility gives them a seat at the table that generalist agencies rarely earn. His closing take is a bet on the next three to five years: the real power shift in advertising will move toward disciplined independents. As holding companies keep acquiring smaller shops to prop up margins and bulk media buying loses its leverage in a digital landscape, boutique agencies that know their ceiling and execute at that level consistently will have a genuine moment. The future belongs to the ones who chose craft over scale.