Setup Partner Feature | Marketing Architects
What gap did you see in the market that led you to found or be a part of your agency?
TV advertising is an incredibly powerful marketing channel, but it can be tough to get right, especially for marketers looking to drive accountable results. It is expensive and difficult to measure. Marketing Architects is on a mission to solve that by exploring untraditional solutions.
What differentiates your agency from others?
Our offering is called All-Inclusive TV, which means that instead of the typical agency fees, our clients only get one bill for media. We cover the costs of everything else needed for campaign success, from strategy development to creative production to attribution.
Are any of your personal values incorporated into the agency?
Our company core values were put in place before I held the position that I do now, and I have no intention of changing them as they were done so well and 100% embody exactly what we need in our people to continue to grow.
One of our core values is “Hungry, Humble, Smart” which is taken from Patrick Lencioni’s “Ideal Team Player.” It’s a value I feel is crucial to not just success in the professional world, but also in the broader sense of life.
Every day, I set out to display hunger for improving our business. I work to display humility as I believe no one person can claim success in a team sport, and no one is ever done improving themselves. And lastly, “smart” is about emotional intelligence, something I have always focused on. Even in a world of technology, we are driven by humans and what we can do, and need to keep our EQ focus, front and center.
Do you have any advice for marketers?
In any role you hold, don’t let it limit your influence. One thing I was taught when I first started working was to think like a CEO, even if you are not. We all have day-to-day responsibilities and tasks that need to get done. In everything you do, wear your CEO hat.
If she/he saw the mundane process that you do every day, would she/he suggest a different way? Who could initiate a project to improve it? Sure, it may not be in your job description, but leaders look for their employees to step up and into challenges the leader can’t see. How can you better the people, process, and tools that you have influence over?
When your coworker sees you stretching to improve the business, the team, and yourself, what do you feel that will do for them? You will be much more fulfilled by your role if you think beyond what you do today. And in doing so, you will help your company, your team, and yourself, as well.
Our agency partners help make the magic at Setup happen. After performing a careful vetting process to thoroughly understand the agency, we partner them with Clients to fill the brand’s specific needs. Interested in becoming an agency partner? Visit here for more information.
In this episode, Madeline Evans, the Marketing Manager at Setup, interviews Jenny Reineck, the Social Media Manager at NCR Voyix, to talk about how curiosity led her to a role in marketing, the benefits of AI in B2B marketing, brands who shine on social media, and more.
When we first featured Andrea Arnold in 2021 for our Women in Marketing Series, now Senior Manager, Thought Leadership & Content Strategy at Eaton, her perspective reflected a creative marketer with a strong strategic instinct and a clear belief in the power of story.
Back then, she shared, “At the end of the day, we are all compelled by the story of the product or service, whether at the business level or personal level.” Years later, Andrea’s perspective has expanded alongside an industry that now demands more speed, more systems, and more discernment.
The Setup Women in Marketing series spotlights incredible leaders making an impact across the industry. When we first featured Vanessa Jasinski, VP of Marketing at YES! Communities, her perspective centered on people. That belief anchored her approach to marketing in 2021 when we first interviewed her and still does today five years later. But as the industry has rapidly evolved, so has the way she applies that mindset.
We’re continuing our Women in Marketing series by spotlighting incredible leaders making an impact across the industry. From career pivots to leadership lessons, we’ve been sharing the inspirational stories of women in marketing since 2019. These leaders share the experiences and insights that have shaped their journeys, and provide advice for upcoming marketers.
At Setup, we sit in the middle of these relationships every day. We see what happens when a client sets an agency partnership up to win and what happens when they accidentally set it up to fail. So if you want better work, better chemistry, and better results, here are the most common “client behaviors” that signal trouble, plus what to do instead.
In the five-minute TV segment about The Connector’s Compass: Navigate Your Way to Meaningful Relationships, I had the chance to explain something that has shaped my career for more than 30 years. Real connection is not about working a room. It is about caring about the person in front of you.
That message did not start with the book. It started with Setup.
Designing for real life means embedding authenticity across the entire customer journey — from product to service to story — in ways that remove friction and deliver measurable and meaningful results.
Marti Walsh, the VP of Customer Experience and Marketing at Kimberly-Clark Professional, shares what it means to be an authentic leader and how to optimize operations honorably.
In the last six years, we’ve surveyed thousands of brands and agencies about their relationships. Each year, the data tells the story that brands want a partner they can rely on, but finding that partner often is difficult, expensive, and time consuming.
Read what brands are looking for in the perfect agency partner.
Setup’s 2025 Marketing Relationship Survey gives marketers a rare, honest look into what brands and agencies say is working and what quietly destroys partnerships.
The truth is that relationships fail because of patterns, mistakes that pile up over time, even after multiple warnings. So here are the most common red flags and green flags in the agency-client relationship based on what real marketers are telling us.
Setup CEO + Founder, Joe Koufman, sat down with Gabie Boko, the Chief Marketing Officer for NetApp, to talk about staying consumer focused, being bold, and loving the LEGO brand.
Super Bowl LX showcased brands pushing weight loss drugs, AI, and utilizing celebrities to an absurd amount (what’s new?), as well as another “Minions" movie in theaters (surprised but not shocked). Every marketer weighs in on who won their hearts…and this year, for us, it came down to brands that leaned into storytelling that included nostalgia and emotion, specifically with a human lens.
And if you’ve ever been blindsided by a brand-agency breakup (from either side), you’re not alone. The 2025 Marketing Relationship Survey shows something that’s both surprising and painfully familiar:
Brands aren’t racing to leave… but they’re also not thrilled.
Setup CEO + Founder, Joe Koufman, sat down with Don McGuire, the EVP and Chief Marketing Officer for Qualcomm, to talk about seizing the moment of opportunity, empathetic leadership, Louis Vuitton, and more.
The annual Setup Marketing Relationship Survey reveals a growing disconnect between what clients say ends agency relationships (delivery + value) and what agencies think ends them (budget cuts + leadership changes). If you want stronger partnerships and better outcomes in 2026, this report highlights exactly where relationships break and how to fix them.
Setup CEO + Founder, Joe Koufman, sat down with Brett Hannath, the Corporate VP, Global Marketing of Intel, to talk problem solving, transparent leadership, the bricks-and-mortar experience, and more.
Joe Koufman, author of The Connector’s Compass and Founder + CEO of Setup, shares his passion behind relationship building and why he wrote a book centered around people pursuing more meaningful connections.
Over the past year, we’ve watched the following patterns emerge across seemingly unrelated sectors: rising consumer expectations, demand for authenticity, growing complexity, and the tension between automation and human connection.
We interviewed multiple marketers from an array of industries in our blogs below, and we discovered consistent trends across the board. Check out all of our industry blogs throughout 2025 from leaders at Blackbaud, Hiscox USA, Mimedx, MONPURE, Kimberly-Clark Professional, and more.
A call for marketers and agencies to participate in the 2025 Marketing Relationship Survey, before it’s too late.
On November 19, 2025, Atlanta’s vibrant marketing community united under one roof for the first-ever Atlanta Integrated Marketing Summit (AIMS) — a remarkable experience that turned inspiration into action, focused on meaningful connections, and highlighted incredible leaders from UPS, Kellanova, Edible Brands, and Papa Johns who are actively pushing the industry forward.
Explore the denim duel between AE’s Sydney Sweeney campaign and Gap’s Milkshake-fueled comeback—and what marketers can learn.
Most agency searches begin with urgency: a priority shift, a launch date appears, and suddenly, you’re writing an RFP at midnight. In that scramble, you invite too many firms, ask the wrong questions, and end up choosing based on pitch theater instead of day-to-day fit. The fix isn’t a better RFP template. It’s time - specifically, the time you spend getting to know agencies before you need one.
Marketers are grappling with how to make their strategy feel more impactful and human in 2025, but in the nonprofit world, that challenge comes with the added pressure of limited budgets and expansive missions. For Lynn Godfrey, Chief Experience Officer at Blood Cancer United, the solution lies in staying intentional, deeply segmenting audiences, and adapting quickly in a constantly evolving landscape.
Private wealth marketing is built on personal relationships, which can make the advancements in technology more and more challenging. In an industry where discretion and relationships reign supreme, marketers must learn how to integrate data, automation, and innovation without losing trust.
To explore this balance, we spoke with Cathy McLagan, Managing Director of Growth Enablement at CIBC Private Wealth US.
Joe Koufman, the Founder and CEO of Setup, explains the benefit of reviving the Atlanta Integrated Marketing System (AIMS). Bringing AIMS back to Atlanta is a chance to unite our community, foster new connections, and share practical insights from across the spectrum. Read about how AIMS benefits the Atlanta marketing community:
“Data-driven” marketing is about proactively leveraging insights to make strategic decisions. But what defines a truly data-driven media approach?
If your media strategy feels tangled and unclear, you’re not alone. Here’s how smart brands are simplifying the chaos and getting real results.
Whether you’re managing campaigns for a national brand, a franchise QSR, or a B2B tech company, the challenge is the same: how do you build smarter media strategies that actually tie back to real business outcomes? We spoke with top experts from Sagepath, Goodway Group, and Look Listen to dig into what’s working, what’s changing, and where media performance and analytics are headed next.
On a bright August morning in Atlanta, marketers from across the city from brands like Hiscox, Coca-Cola, Church’s Chicken, and more gathered for Setup’s latest #MarketersBreakfast, ready to explore a topic on everyone’s mind: How can AI truly enhance, rather than replace, human creativity?
Over coffee and conversation, attendees rolled up their sleeves for a hands-on, interactive session led by Aby Varma, the Founder of Spark Novus.
Jose Villa, the President & Chief Strategy Officer at Sensis and Chair of the Hispanic Marketing Council, shares his thoughts on Multicultural marketing - where marketers are spending and where consumers are shopping when fear and uncertainty take precedence.