Media Buying Briefing: Court Avenue’s Kenny Tomlin explains how the network will grow in a recession

The new generation of marketing services networks (they don’t like to be called agencies) that’s turning the holding company model on its head, includes the likes of Media.Monks, Jellyfish and BrandTech — all based out of Europe, but expanding in the U.S. and other parts of the world. 

One U.S. equivalent, Court Avenue, has put its own spin on creating a network while inverting that holding-company model. I caught up with Kenny Tomlin, Court Avenue’s co-founder and partner, during the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, and we talked about how the company plans to expand in a potentially recessionary environment. Tomlin, who founded digital shop RockFish then sold it to WPP in 2011 and eventually ran WPP Ventures, has experience both on the independent and holding-company ends of the business.