Leadership Lessons with Asher Gordon, Managing Director EMEA at Tug

Daniela Mamica, UK Marketing Lead at Hanson Search, sat down with Asher Gordon, Managing Director EMEA at Tug, to explore how AI is reshaping the agency model, from fully automated media buying to answer engine advertising, and why people relationships and trust still set leaders apart in an increasingly automated industry. Asher shares where Tug is investing for the future, how the agency stays close to clients under pressure, and his advice for the next generation of agency leaders.

Looking back at the last 12 months, what are the major industry shifts that have most affected how Tug operates today?

It has mainly been the shift towards AI. If you look at search, Meta and TikTok, campaigns are no longer built around manual audience building or keyword targeting in the way they used to be. It is all about being fully automated. You plug in what you want your conversions to be, who you want your audience to be and what your creative is, and the platforms take that, build the campaign and deliver strong results from there.

What marketing trends have been defining 2026, and which ones are overhyped?

The defining trend is answer engine advertising (AEA), where users shift away from traditional lists of search links and instead type a few keywords into a chat interface, having more of a conversation within AI tools. That is the biggest change I have seen.

What is overhyped is platform-specific attribution, relying on the numbers that Meta, Google or the platforms report about themselves. We are now looking much more at multi-touch attribution, understanding what is happening holistically, across the whole customer journey, rather than inside any single platform.

What are clients looking for in a marketing agency today, and how do you align Tug to deliver this?

Clients want efficiency. They still want strong performance, but they also want more commercial transparency, to know exactly what they are paying for and why. And they no longer want performance and brand kept in separate silos. They want it all under one roof, with an agency that delivers incremental growth, the additional sales you would not have won otherwise, while also protecting the brand metrics that keep the business healthy over the long term.

At Tug, we bring all of that into one package, built on our core philosophy of data, media, content and technology. Making all that accessible to clients means we optimise towards lower-level demand capture and conversions, while our research and tools make sure clients are still building the brand for the longer term. It is measurement, performance and data under one roof.

How has the role of an agency leader evolved over the past few years, and what core leadership principles do you believe never change?

The role is no longer just about being a relationship manager, the person having the lunches, dinners and conversations with senior marketers on the brand side. You have to be far more tech-fluent now, and more of a commercial architect, because AI is changing how we execute almost overnight. A leader has to be agile, build a strong team culture, understand what is really happening in the industry and translate that both to clients and internally.

What never changes is a Tug fundamental: work hard and be nice to people. It is a high-pressure, high-change, tech-driven world, but people still buy from people and still learn from people. You have to stay empathetic, be transparent even in stressful situations, and protect your team culture even when things get really busy.

How are you using and integrating AI in your business, and how is this affecting the marketing work you produce?

AI runs through everything we do, but always with a human layer on top. A good example is agentic buying, where AI agents plan and buy media automatically across platforms. It takes away some of the unpredictability of a person making an error or not spotting opportunities as quickly as the machines can. The key is keeping a person in the loop to review and approve, setting clear parameters for the efficiency the system can chase and when it is allowed to act automatically, with a fail-safe so a human can look at what has been done and what we could do next based on the results. You want it to move faster, but never to do something a person would not.

The other side of AI is data. Your data has to be readable for both the platforms and for AI. If it is incorrect or not updated regularly, you either will not be surfaced or, when you are, it will not be accurate. Garbage in, garbage out. That means getting the basics right, building dashboards and making sure tracking is correct, but also using AI to find pockets of efficiency and audience insight. Data is not something you set and forget, it needs consistent investment.

Where are you investing most heavily to prepare Tug for future client needs and further industry change?

We are investing more in proprietary technology, through Tug Labs, and in first-party data integrations, because that is the future. First-party data is the information you collect directly from your own customers, and with so many disparate platforms it needs to be interoperable, so you can take it across different tools and still reach the people who matter most to your business.

We are also investing heavily in discoverability and GEO, generative engine optimisation, making sure the brand shows up where people are actually looking. As more of those conversations happen directly with AI, we need to find people where those conversations are taking place.

How do you maintain strong, strategic relationships when clients are under more pressure than ever?

At Tug, we want to run towards the fire, not away from it. When a client is facing budget constraints or other hurdles, it is not about defending the media plan or thinking short-term. It is about looking at the broader business and optimising towards incrementality, the real, net-new growth the investment is driving.

If we can show a client how their spend is driving genuine new business, and where they should keep investing so they do not damage revenue over the long term, we stop being just a vendor and become a commercial partner. That means having the hard conversations, working through the data behind the scenes and showing clients why the investment is worth it, then making sure it actually pays off.

If you could give one piece of advice to the next generation of agency leaders, what would you want them to know?

Keep learning. There is so much happening in the industry right now, so you have to master the technology and get comfortable being uncomfortable, not knowing something yet but committing to learn it. At the same time, double down on your people relationships and keep that human trust, because it is not all about automation. It is about your relationships with people, and how people actually put the technology to work. Be technology-literate, but never stop building relationships.

Whether you are hiring top marketing talent or considering your next career move, our team at Hanson Search would be delighted to support you with expert executive search guidance and industry-leading recruitment insight.

Daniela Mamica is UK Marketing Lead, working across senior and leadership level roles. She brings a wealth of experience, having recruited into the marketing space for over 11 years. Daniela previously worked with network media agencies (WPP Media, Omnicom Media Group, Publicis Groupe and Dentsu), successfully growing their paid and organic media functions. She also has extensive experience supporting independent media, marketing and digital agencies, finding sought-after digital marketing.

Hanson Search Group is a global talent consultancy providing executive search, recruitment and leadership advisory services. Built on more than twenty years of trusted relationships, we operate as a connected global platform of specialist practices with expert consultants embedded in key markets.