“Any business founder with a vision can postulate a new business, but it takes the collaboration of many people to make it a success,” wrote opinion columnist Martin Zwilling in a recent Inc. article. “Today the complexity of forces required for success include multidisciplinary skills, competencies and experiences in which the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.”
At Accelerated Digital Media, cross-channel collaboration and multidisciplinary work is at the heart of the agency’s success. The small but mighty team of 30 marketers across the United States has navigated the ever-changing digital marketing landscape by embedding open communication and continuous learning into its culture.
Associate Director of SEM Chad Stewart noted that the agency has made it a priority to educate employees at all levels about how their roles fit within the broader marketing ecosystem from their first days on the job to understand how their responsibilities support work across the team.
“We’ve created internal training resources that include information about the marketing funnel,” Stewart explained. “This helps our team see how different tactics support various levels of the funnel, allowing for a more integrated approach to client work.”
ADM’s commitment to education doesn’t stop at onboarding. By holding internal syncs for cross-channel teams working on shared clients, ADM ensures alignment on performance metrics, budget pacing and broader initiatives. These syncs are vital, especially when teams meet with clients separately, as they allow for a cohesive strategy that leverages the strengths of each channel.
“This allows the teams to check in on things like performance, budget pacing and how they can collaborate to support broader initiatives, such as sales or product launches,” Stewart said.
Leading by Example
Leadership at ADM plays a crucial role in setting the tone for collaboration.
“Nothing makes a point to a team better than seeing the leader practicing what they preach,” Stewart said. “I make it a point to call out when I solve a problem with or learn something from a member of a different team, so when I ask my own direct reports to follow up with someone from another team, they understand that my expectation is for them to have a collaborative human interaction.”
“Nothing makes a point to a team better than seeing the leader practicing what they preach.”
Director of Paid Social Victoria Sullivan added that in her role, she collaborates with her counterparts at a high level to establish shared expectations and paths to achieve client goals.
“Asking questions to get the team thinking about cross-channel opportunities is the best tool to motivate action,” she said. By fostering a culture of inquiry, Sullivan ensures that her team is always looking for ways to leverage insights from other channels to improve their work.
She also pointed out that ADM fosters an environment where feedback is not only encouraged but also seen as an opportunity for growth.
“If one team feels another team is being less collaborative, we welcome that feedback as a chance to improve,” she said.
Learning From One Another
ADM recognizes that different teams bring different perspectives to their work, and the agency has implemented several initiatives to bridge these gaps. Sullivan highlighted the importance of in-person interactions, which happen twice a year during agency-wide gatherings. These events allow employees to build relationships face-to-face, which often leads to smoother professional collaboration.
Between these gatherings, ADM conducts regular cross-departmental training sessions and mock calls, pairing employees across departments together. According to Sullivan, these interactions not only deepen relationships but also enhance ADM’s ability to deliver cohesive and effective client strategies.
Associate Director of Media Strategy Jason Spangler echoed the sentiment that cross-channel collaboration is key to ADM’s success. He pointed out that regular cross-functional meetings to discuss client-specific results, trends and strategies help align the team on business goals.
“Having that foundational understanding allows our teams to approach cross-channel conversations with more understanding and purpose,” Spangler explained.
ADM’s culture of collaboration extends to continuous learning and knowledge-sharing. Stewart emphasized the importance of asking questions to better understand the work of colleagues in other departments.
“Everyone in the agency has heard me say ‘tell it to me like I’m five,’ because I want to boil things down to their simplest concepts whenever possible,” he said. “From that very basic level of understanding I can ask them follow-up questions to round out my own understanding, which can also open the door for me to make connections between what they’re teaching me and things from my own work.”
“Everyone in the agency has heard me say ‘tell it to me like I’m five,’ because I want to boil things down to their simplest concepts whenever possible.”
Similarly, Sullivan pointed to ADM’s cross-channel shadowing opportunities as a valuable tool for fostering understanding and collaboration between teams. This initiative allows team members to observe colleagues in other departments, which enhances their understanding of different channels and fosters greater interest in the work of others.
“Through these interactions, I’ve gained valuable insights into how different channels contribute to our overall client success,” Sullivan said. “The shared learnings from these collective experiences is a major strength of ADM as an agency.”
Maintaining High Standards Through Accountability
ADM’s culture of collaboration is underpinned by a commitment to maintaining high standards and holding one another accountable through a transparent culture — which extends to cross-channel learning.
“ADM thrives in a culture of knowledge-sharing, and to ensure we are putting our best foot forward for clients we often lean on other internal experts on specific platforms or topics for advice and expertise,” Spangler said.
Thanks to ADM’s constructive culture, Spangler has found people across the team are receptive and open to clear and growth-oriented communication.
“ADM is a feedback-driven company, which ensures we are holding each other accountable to the high standards that we’ve set for ourselves,” he said. “Every teammate at every level is empowered to provide constructive feedback; and every teammate at every level should accept constructive feedback as a valuable tool to continue improving. Those simple principles built into the culture are key contributors to the overall success of the agency.”
“ADM is a feedback-driven company, which ensures we are holding each other accountable to the high standards that we’ve set for ourselves.”
