Interview with Megan Human – Founder and CEO Ashby & Gabriel

Marketing Darwinism: Megan, tell us about Ashby & Gabriel. What is your philosophy and approach?

Megan: The essence of our company is the multifarious world of communications. At the heart of every business, every transaction, every organization, every connection, every innovation is communication. Technology is incredibly important but communications trumps everything. We started the company to test that claim and we’ve been lucky enough to have it borne out with our incredible customers and THEIR success.

Marketing Darwinism: As a marketer myself, communication is next to my heart. But how do we create differentiation via that channel?

Megan: My view of that is what I call “Customer Depth” or what others call “Surrounding the Customer.” In other words, until you know the full context of your customer, and your customer’s customer and so on, you cannot craft a communications strategy that both works and is differentiated. Deep knowledge matters but it shouldn’t be taken to suggest that you need a long process to acquire the knowledge. The first great act of a marketer is listening to understand. Once you understand, you can build a playbook and execute.

Marketing Darwinism:For a small firm, you have an incredible array of customers. Tell us more about that please.

Megan: Our roots were with non-profit and conservation-related organizations. That came out of my passion for the natural world and for preserving it for generations hence. We realized that just as non-profits have clear missions, there are for-profit companies that do too. We have been able to nucleate business with some incredible companies- in technology, real estate, and other areas that all are based on some version of “community” and “connection,” two of our pillars.

Marketing Darwinism: On to more operational questions. How do you deal with all the various tools and innovations in “Modern Marketing?”

Megan: No-one, not even a genius, can know every tool, every technology, every app, and every new-new thing. We try to keep up only because we need to offer the best to our customers, but we also know that being too diffuse creates mediocrity. In addition, the “stop and start” and “bright, shiny object” approach to marketing is bound to fail. So we think we are good at what you call “Modern Marketing” but we also rely on some old-word ideas- like listening, connection, creativity, consistency, and purpose.

Marketing Darwinism: A parting question for you. How do you see agency marketing playing out in 2025 and beyond?

Megan: We are a small agency so can speak only to the opportunities firms like ours have. We’ve seen what we think of as a re-embrace of the agency. It’s not a question simply of having more people on your “virtual team,” but also of working with folks that aren’t in the same structure as you are, to get a fresh view of strategy and a fresh way to execute. We are lucky to get more queries than we can handle. So I think agencies are in a great place going into 2025.