By: Joshua Finley

Marketing has changed a lot and agency leaders now need to think about new ways of helping their clients, and how to use new technology. It is not enough to just be good at doing things as people in marketing need to know what the client wants and also be good with new tools like AI. Few understand this evolution better than Kingsley Taylor, who traded his senior operational role to work directly with CMOs and growth executives. His journey from winning a coveted internship at Carlson Marketing Group to helping major brands navigate today’s complex landscape offers valuable insights for marketing leaders seeking to balance innovation with results.

Starting with a Competitive Edge

Getting an interview at Carlson Marketing Group wasn’t easy, since “It was 4 days of many interviews which slowly reduced from 400 people down to just 20, to be a part of the interview process,” Kingsley explained. He was among the three who were hired as interns. He worked with big brands, like British Airways and Diageo, which confirmed his career path in marketing, after entering the industry by chance.

Kingsley started moving away from direct client relationships – which he actually loved most about marketing – when reaching higher positions in his job. “The problem with becoming more senior at handling the business side is, that you start getting detached from the actual client’s work,” he shares. Because of this, he decided to focus more on consultation, directly with CMOs and growth managers. “This industry is all about relationships, which are based on confidence and that confidence comes from your clients knowing you understand their business and can provide value to their organization,” he said. Kingsley regularly meets with both technology partners and media platforms like Reddit, Meta, and Snap to ensure he brings fresh ideas to his clients in order to stay up to date with the industry.

Leveraging AI for Greater Efficiency

Kingsley is seeing AI as a chance to grow marketing work instead of seeing it as a threat. He mentions that AI, “allows one person to do the job of many, driving up efficiency overall,” and he added that “it elevates people to focus on upstream strategic work, leaving repetitive work for AI to handle.” He also points towards different ways AI is changing marketing, that, “from buying media and using huge data for insights, it frees up many employees, and for creative work, LLM’s  can support a writer stuck with ideas”. He added that tools like Sora, which create photorealistic videos, can do what was costly in the past from a “single click”.

Taking Calculated Risks

Kingsley believes in acting with confidence when big decisions arise as he remembers opening an LA office for a client who wanted teams to be available in-person, saying, “Agency and client relationships can have a shelf life. Any number of factors can stimulate a pitch and a change in relationship. So it is a bet that one needs to consider if starting an office and building a brand around it.” In this case, hiring people for this one client was worth it and taking a risk paid off since the office grew beyond its original client.

His idea that marketing needs both data-based choices and creative risks was further reinforced through this experience. “If you always use marketing tactics that leverage the same approach, so will your competitor which means the only way to overcome growth inertia is by taking calculated risks and trying a new approach,” he explains.

The pressure to do more with less isn’t new in marketing, but AI adds fresh complexity to the equation. “CFOs and CMOs need to make their marketing dollars work harder, and there’s a belief that AI is the solution,” Kingsley notes. “But no one has a clear instruction book on how that works.” He sees opportunity in this uncertainty. By helping clients develop practical roadmaps for using AI while maintaining creative excellence, marketing leaders can deliver better results. It’s about balancing efficiency with innovation – and being willing to take smart risks along the way.

To learn more about Kingsley Taylor and his approach, check out his LinkedIn profile.

Published by Drake M.