StratFest Sees Strategy at the Center of the Marketing Engine

Sure, creativity is great. But have you tried it with strategy? Two great disciplines that do better together. 

The idea behind the 4As StratFest is to recognize the sometimes unsung workhorse of the advertising industry — strategy, and the 4As has been doing that since 1998. The leading strategy festival kicked off its 2026 agenda Oct. 5, and it brought together agencies, brands, and strategy folks from all areas of the industry to discuss the leading topics strategists are facing today with a theme of Bright Spots: Track the Signals. Own the Shifts, co-hosted by Christopher Ferrel, CSO, TRG and Andy Goldsmith, SVP, Member Solutions, 4As.

“The best strategists will spot what others might miss…see patterns,” said Justin Thomas-Copeland, CEO of the 4As, in his opening remarks.

Strategy and the CMO

As strategy becomes more entwined in every aspect of the marketing, Thomas-Copeland says it is at a critical point, especially with the changing nature of the CMO. The CMO has to have much more of a business board discourse and contribution. 

“There’s a bit of a client generational cycle where there’s a bifurcation. The CMO is much more business focused. The teams are much more digitally native, and their heads are sort of functional leads who are driving the work and creating new brand books,” said Thomas-Copeland in an interview with Indie Agency News.

That, and the fact that sometimes the CMO role is eliminated and those tasks fall to others in the organization, means that strategists are more important to the overall function of the marketing team.

Thomas-Copeland said there is a need for a sharp eye and a sharp voice who can curate, who can tell you something is different, and is a point of difference, and who can drive growth, and that is a strategist.

“I think the strategy function, and the need for strategy, is at it’s most critical right now, because someone has to be at the middle of that to curate and have that sharp eye,” he stated. 

Thomas-Copeland has talked with agencies across the country, and he is seeing a real focus on strategy, not just being a function that is working on the brief, but is now moving much more front of house to be in a function that’s leading clients. 

“(The role is) becoming more of an orchestrator. And so they’re diagnosing it, they’re prescribing it, and they’re also orchestrating to build it,” said Thomas-Copeland, who added that the canvas is bigger now for strategists and “it’s paint the picture time.”

“Progressive agencies are realizing that strategy can really help to not just deliver great work, but define the relationship in this new context that we are all in now,” he said.

Strategy and AI

AI is on everyone’s mind, and StratFest certainly addressed this head-on. Jessica Qaasim, head of industry at Google, talked about her company’s use of AI through Gemini, which is being used as a discovery tool. She gave an example of Lyft using it to help travelers see sights they might not notice on their drives around cities they don’t know well.

“AI is here to help unlock dramatically different solutions…Curiosity is the new credential, and super users will win,” said Qaasim.

Thomas-Copeland is seeing a wider use of AI at agencies as it relates to strategy. He’s seeing agencies build products with agentic layers to deal with the tremendous amounts of data generated. 

“The target or segment audience is essentially the agentic layer, and all of the media data, the investment data, the segmentation research data goes in, and that is like a live interface that is serving both client and agency, and it’s orchestrated from the agency side by the strategists, and it’s then got a strategic voice into the client by default,” said Thomas-Copeland.

Agencies are using AI to change workflow, and using it in very intentional ways, and that’s where strategy can come in and see how it can be used properly.

Strategy is also making its way into marketing education and training. The 4As constructed a StratJam, like its recent GenJam, which gave attendees a few hours to crack a brief with a combination of AI and human intelligence. 

StratFest featured speaker Michael Fanuele, founder of Talk Like Music, who used music analogies to show that, to be a good strategist, one must inspire with passion. Other speakers included Chris Meyer, CEO, Project Worldwide, who brought up the concept of the “dark funnel,”; and Joe Burns, partner and head of strategy at Quality Meats Creative, who made the case that less time doesn’t shrink strategy, but actually sharpens it.