‘I don’t want institutional inflexibility’: Alex Watts on indies vs holdcos

June 21, 2024 10:03

Six months into the year and Mumbrella has reported on more independent agency launches than it can count. With more and more entering the market, Poem’s recently-hired Alex Sol Watts argues that we’re in the middle of an “independent agency revolution” – and it’s an exciting time that is not slowing down.

After joining Poem earlier this month as executive director of social and strategy, and having experience from various other indies and holdcos, Watts’ decision to move to the indie comms agency was driven by the so-called revolution.

“I feel like every 36 hours, someone launches an agency that has a really exciting proposition and would be a great thing to work at,” he told Mumbrella. “Like, I’m running out of LinkedIn likes to celebrate people starting agencies! But, we’re right in the middle of this revolution.

Subscribe to keep reading

Join Mumbrella Pro to access the Mumbrella archive and read our premium analysis of everything under the media and marketing umbrella.

Lauren McNamara

Lauren McNamara is a freelance journalist. She previously spent three years at Mumbrella, most recently as the associate editor. She left her staff role in August 2025.