In 2019, having a New York City-based job at advertising agency R/GA meant working daily from a 173,000 square-foot office space in Hudson Yards—an office so immense that some agency execs have referred to it as “a football field.”

By 2023, that football field was long gone: At the beginning of the year, R/GA relocated to a newly designed office space in NYC’s Chelsea neighborhood that’s one-tenth the size of the old one. Only around 10% of R/GA’s New York-based staff are in the office at any given time.

“No matter how fancy the space, there’s no point in paying for an acre of desks for 40 members of staff a day to come in,” Tom Morton, R/GA’s global chief strategy officer, said. “We didn’t need a desk farm anymore.”

Big picture: Three years of remote work and hybrid arrangements have altered white-collar jobs, and R/GA’s office downsizing reflects some of those workplace changes. As executive teams around the country grapple with hybrid work setups, agency leaders are still reenvisioning what it looks like to build company cultures and workplace camaraderie in a hybrid work world.

“We’re never going back to pre-Covid,” said Elizabeth Eidshaug, executive director of brand and business growth and head of the New York studio at Pearlfisher, a brand design agency. “So what are we now creating in its place? I think that’s the real opportunity for all of us.”

Read the full story here.—KS

Hello, Marketing Brew readers!

For the last two years, we’ve been hard at work trying to build not just a best-in-class journalistic outlet that understands the difference between speaking to, with, and at readers (we prefer “with”—but hey, that’s just us), but also one that serves as a hub for the marketing community and connects people.

We do this through our newsletter, which hits 280,000 inboxes every day, and through our virtual events series, where we get into the brass tacks of marketing. We have conversations with you, our readers, every day in one way or another. And one great way to foster community is to gather everyone under one roof.

Come join us on May 11th in NYC for our second annual Marketing Brew event called The Brief, where not only will we bring the newsletter to life but also become a conduit between idea and execution.

(You can read the highlights from last year’s inaugural shindig here—and yes, there were highlights. How could there not be, with senior executives from McDonald’s, Vans, American Eagle, and so many more companies talking about how they navigate the marketing world and providing actionable guidance for attendees?)

Over the last decade or so, I’ve been to way too many industry events where panels stretch on for longer than the amount of time it takes an IO to get signed; where the food is either really bad or really, really bad; or where the organizer forces conversation by having buyers vendors and sellers do some speed dating.

My point is this: The Brief is not that.

We want our community to experience, well, community. Sure, we’ve got some pretty heavy hitters (like Bobbi Brown, founder and chief creative officer of Jones Road Beauty; Everette Taylor, CEO of Kickstarter; and Ajay Kapoor, global director of performance-driven marketing at GM) sitting down with our reporters to talk about all things marketing.

But we also have workshops in which Tony’s Chocolonely will teach us how doing good is good business and in which OkCupid will show us how to harness the power of data in marketing and communications.

And don’t get me started on the food. I did not know that marketing conferences could have really good food. I’m still thinking about last year’s poke bowl (IYKYK).

Community comes together to learn together, to grow together, to help each other. In a world gone mad, a community can make sense of everything. As members of this community, come hang with us in May.—JS

There are a lot of bad marketing tips out there. These aren’t those.

Explainer: How does IPv6 impact digital advertising? We thought you’d never ask.

Branding: “How to craft a story that sells in 2023,” according to Shopify.

Click here: Craft more impactful campaigns with help from these six pay-per-click strategies.

Branding takes the wheel: Is your brand’s messaging breaking through? Uber achieved stronger levels of cohesive communication with a brand hub built with Frontify, unlocking consistency, accessibility, and scalability for their brand. See how it happened.*

^{*This is sponsored advertising content.}

Thinking about attending The Brief in May? Before the big day, let’s get to know some of the marketing geniuses who will be in attendance.

Meet Zipporah Allen, chief marketing officer at Strava, a social platform building a community of athletes around the world. Marketing Brew will sit down with Zipporah to discuss rebranding, disruption, economic uncertainty, career evolution, and more.

What could you and a marketing leader like Zipporah have in common? You could both be at our Marketing Brew Summit on May 11.

Find tickets here.

It’s March Madness. What better way to celebrate than to salute an iconic sports logo?

Catch up on a few Marketing Brew stories you might have missed.

• Kroger spent millions advertising its own peanut butter—why?
• Melissa Hobley puts her touch on Tinder’s first global brand campaign
• Why brand publishing seems to be having a moment