Agency Titles Are Evolving: Takeaways from Maggie Cadigan of The Many

Job titles have long been the shorthand of agency life. They tell you who sits where, who owns what, and who gets pulled into which meeting. In Take #44 of The Many Takes, Maggie Cadigan of The Many questions how much those labels should matter. The Many is a creative agency specializing in food and beverage marketing, and The Many Takes is its series of short-form leadership clips featuring people from across the company. This article unpacks the ideas in her take on agency titles.

The core idea: from silos to connections

Traditional agencies are built around departments. Strategy, creative, media and account teams each have their own lanes, and titles reinforce those lanes. Maggie's take is that roles are moving toward a "connections" model. Instead of staying confined to one silo, people are encouraged to engage with many different areas of the business and learn from them.

The point is not that expertise stops mattering. It is that expertise grows faster when people understand the neighboring disciplines they work alongside. A strategist who understands how media is bought, or a designer who understands how a brief is built, can contribute earlier and more usefully.

Why rigid titles can hold people back

A title is a promise about what someone does, and also an unspoken limit on what they are expected to do. When titles are narrow, people can hesitate to weigh in on work outside their lane. Good ideas get filtered by org charts rather than by merit.

A connections mindset loosens that. It invites people to be curious, ask questions across teams and take part in conversations they might otherwise have been left out of. For an agency that talks about building work people want to participate in, it is natural to let its own people participate more broadly too.

The shift is happening on the client side as well

One of the most interesting parts of the take is that this is not only an agency story. Maggie notes the same change on the client side, where CMOs are breaking down organizational barriers inside their own companies. Marketing leaders are increasingly reorganizing how their teams work together, rather than preserving the old boundaries between brand, performance, content and communications.

That matters for agencies. If a client's internal teams are becoming more connected, an agency organized in rigid silos can be a poor match. Agencies that mirror the flexibility of their clients are easier to work with and better placed to solve problems that cross traditional boundaries.

Critical thinking over strict job descriptions

Alongside the structural change comes a change in what leaders value. The take points to CMOs prioritizing critical thinking over strict job descriptions. In other words, the ability to analyze a problem, question assumptions and connect ideas is worth more than the ability to stay inside a defined scope.

For individuals, this is encouraging. It suggests that career growth is less about climbing a ladder of titles and more about building range: learning how different parts of the business work, and applying that understanding to new problems.

What this means for agency teams

Several practical takeaways follow from the conversation:

• Encourage cross-team learning. Make it normal for people to sit in on work outside their discipline.
• Treat titles as a starting point. A title can describe where someone begins without defining everything they can contribute.
• Hire and develop for curiosity. Critical thinking and a willingness to connect dots are strong signals of long-term value.
• Match the client's way of working. As clients flatten their own structures, agencies benefit from being equally adaptable.

What this means for clients and brand leaders

Brand leaders can read the same trend from the other side. If agency roles are becoming more fluid, briefing and collaboration can be too. Rather than asking which department owns a task, clients can ask which people, from any discipline, are best placed to help. That tends to lead to faster decisions and work that reflects the whole business rather than a single function.

About the speaker

Maggie Cadigan is part of The Many, the Los Angeles-based creative agency behind The Many Takes. Her professional profile lists her experience at The Many and places her in Santa Monica. In this take she brings an insider view of how agency roles are changing, grounded in the day-to-day reality of working across disciplines.

Final thoughts

The conversation about agency titles is really a conversation about how good work gets made. When people are connected across disciplines, curious about each other's craft and trusted to think critically, titles become less of a boundary and more of a label. Maggie Cadigan's take is a short, useful reminder that the most valuable roles in modern agencies, and in the brands they serve, are the ones that connect rather than confine.

Watch the full clip in this stack to hear her perspective in her own words.