By Nora Bright

Image by Emily Zheng

Enterprise marketing hiring is shifting

Budgets are tightening, teams are getting leaner, and marketers are increasingly expected to deliver across more channels and with fewer resources.

At the same time, AI tools and changing content expectations are reshaping what hiring managers look for in marketing candidates.

Increasingly, enterprise marketing teams are prioritizing those who can operate across functions, adapt quickly, and contribute beyond a narrow specialization. They’re also looking for those who have proven their ability to:

1. Connect strategy to execution

Hiring managers increasingly seek out marketers who can think strategically while still executing at a hands-on level.

In many enterprise environments, there is less separation between leadership, operations, and execution than there used to be.

The strongest candidates are often the ones who can:

• Remove blockers independently
• Identify gaps and step in to lessen them when resources are limited
• Work proactively across teams
• Build relationships without waiting for direction

Enterprise teams increasingly want marketers who can move ideas forward, not just oversee them.

That often means having a track record of taking on responsibilities outside of a formal job description, building cross-functional relationships, and contributing wherever the business needs support.

READ MORE: Four traits for candidate success in complex environments

2. Maximize content across formats

Written content still matters, especially for SEO, education, and long-form thought leadership.

But increasingly, enterprise marketing teams are looking for those who can think beyond a single format.

Candidates with experience across video, webinars, podcasts, social clips, email, and content repurposing are becoming more valuable as organizations try to maximize the impact of every campaign and content asset.

In many enterprise environments, an executive interview or webinar no longer lives in just one place. It might become:

• Podcast episodes
• Short-form video clips
• LinkedIn content
• Blog summaries
• Email campaigns
• Sales enablement content

Marketers who understand how to scale messaging across multiple formats and channels are increasingly standing out in hiring conversations.

3. Work comfortably with AI

Most hiring managers we work with now include experience using AI tools in marketing job descriptions.

They are looking for marketers who already understand how to use AI practically and responsibly in day-to-day marketing operations and workflows. That might include:

• Research and analysis
• Content brainstorming, drafting, and repurposing
• Campaign planning
• Marketing operations automation
• Performance analysis
• Process documentation

Candidates should be prepared to discuss not just what tool they use, but what their philosophy around AI is.

The most desirable candidates are usually the ones who can clearly explain how they’ve used AI to improve speed, efficiency, output, or collaboration—while still maintaining quality, creativity, and thoughtful human oversight.

4. Be resourceful in tight budget environments

Enterprise companies may have large brands and large audiences, but that does not always mean unlimited budgets or resources.

In many large companies, marketing teams are under increasing pressure to improve efficiency while still delivering measurable business impact.

As a result, hiring managers are placing a premium on marketers who can operate effectively within constraints.

That often means candidates who can demonstrate how they have:

• Reduced marketing costs
• Streamlined marketing operations
• Built scalable systems
• Maintained performance with fewer resources
• Found creative solutions to operational constraints

Resourcefulness is no longer just valued at start-ups and small businesses. It is becoming increasingly valuable across enterprise organizations as well.

READ MORE: Find the B2B marketer you’re looking for with these questions

5. Demonstrate business fluency, not just marketing fluency

Enterprise hiring managers increasingly want marketers who understand business impact, not just campaign execution.

That means understanding how marketing supports:

• Demand generation
• Customer retention
• Brand trust
• Product adoption
• Revenue goals
• Customer education

The strongest candidates can explain not only what they executed, but why it mattered to the business.

They can connect marketing initiatives back to larger organizational priorities and make thoughtful decisions about where time, budget, and energy should be invested.

Strong enterprise marketers understand both messaging and business context, and that level of commercial awareness is becoming a major differentiator.

6. Communicate across functions

Enterprise marketers rarely work in isolation.

They usually collaborate with product, sales, legal, leadership, agencies, regional teams, operations, and brand stakeholders—sometimes all within the same initiative.

As organizations become leaner and more cross-functional, communication skills become even more important.

The strongest marketers are usually the ones who can:

• Collaborate effectively across teams
• Communicate clearly with stakeholders
• Align competing priorities
• Navigate feedback constructively
• Keep projects moving despite complexity

This kind of communication and relationship-building is harder than it looks, and hiring managers know it’s often the key to success in enterprise environments.

7. Adapt in changing environments

Enterprise environments are constantly evolving. Priorities shift. Budgets change. Teams reorganize. Entire initiatives can be paused, reworked, or replaced halfway through execution.

I hear from hiring managers all the time how much they value team members who can adapt without becoming frustrated or paralyzed by ambiguity.

That adaptability has become increasingly important as marketing organizations move faster and expectations continue to evolve.

The strongest enterprise marketers know how to maintain momentum even when the path forward is not perfectly clear.

Flexibility, resilience, and a willingness to adjust quickly are becoming some of the most valuable traits in enterprise marketing teams.

More than functional expertise

Enterprise marketing teams are not just looking for specialists anymore.

The marketers standing out in 2026 are often the ones who can combine technical skill, business understanding, operational flexibility, and cross-functional collaboration inside increasingly complex organizations.

At 2A Recruiting & Staffing, we help companies build stronger marketing teams by identifying and hiring candidates who can deliver results in increasingly complex environments.

Whether you are building out a marketing organization, hiring for a specialized role, or looking for marketers who can adapt across functions and formats, we can help.

Reach out to 2A Recruiting & Staffing

By Michelle Najarian, Andrea Swangard

Image by Evan Aeschlimann

Think about the last event you attended.

You likely don’t remember the full keynote or every conversation, but a few moments probably stand out. That’s because memory doesn’t work like a recording device. We remember fragments: emotions, standout visuals, short phrases, and moments that felt different from everything around them.

So instead of trying to make everything memorable, it’s more effective to focus on designing a few moments that people will carry with them.

What people hear sticks when it’s repeatable

The ideas that last aren’t the most detailed, they’re the ones people can easily repeat. At the Geekwire Agents of Transformation event, a fireside chat panel member described using AI to reduce internal friction as “removing paper cuts.” That simple phrase made a complex idea instantly relatable, and it quickly showed up again in later conversations. Most people probably won’t remember every point from the session, but they’ll remember the phrase because it made the bigger idea instantly understandable. When a message is easy to say out loud, it’s far more likely to spread.

What people see helps ideas land

Visuals help people process information quickly, especially when attention is already stretched. In crowded event environments, the right visual helps people understand something instantly instead of making them work for it. People remember visuals that simplify a complex idea, create emotional recognition, or immediately clarify what matters. Whether it’s a clear architecture diagram or a short, human video, the right visual can make an idea click without extra explanation. Think quick customer clips sharing a real outcome, or a speaker stepping out of slides to tell a story in their own words. Those moments feel less like content and more like connection, which makes them easier to remember.

What people engage with creates memory

The most memorable booths and sessions may not be the most polished, but they’re the ones where something is happening. Interactive demos, small activities, or even thoughtful swag can turn a passive experience into something participatory. And when people participate, they’re far more likely to remember the moment and talk about it later.

At a recent event, one booth drew a crowd by printing logos onto the foam of attendees’ coffee. It was simple, but it created a shared experience and sparked conversations while people waited (free coffee and networking that feels natural? A win-win). In a space where every brand is competing for attention, those small moments of interaction are often the things that stay with people the longest.

Design for moments, not volume

In overstimulating event environments, trying to make everything memorable often has the opposite effect. When every booth is loud, polished, and demanding attention, people stop processing the differences altogether. What actually creates recall are moments of contrast.

That’s why the goal shouldn’t be maximizing visibility at every touchpoint. Instead, focus on creating a small number of moments that people can easily remember, describe, and share after the event is over.

By Abby Breckenridge

Image by Rachel Adams

There’s a misconception about staffing firms—that we simply pocket the gap between what a client pays and what a contractor earns.

The reality is more complicated, and it’s where you can tell the difference between a transactional staffing vendor and a true talent partner.

At 2A Recruiting & Staffing, we believe great people do their best work when they’re supported well. That means much of the spread between bill rate and pay rate is invested back into employee experience, operational support, and long-term business health.

Here’s a rundown of what the staffing fee actually covers.

1. The consultant salary

Yep, that’s the one you already knew about.

2. Employee benefits and infrastructure

This bucket is the direct cost of supporting the consultant, in their job and life.

That includes things like payroll taxes and benefits, including:

• Health, vision, and dental insurance
• Life insurance
• 401(k) matching
• Other benefits like disability insurance, parental leave, fertility and fitness benefits, and professional development funds

It also includes a lot of infrastructure that people don’t always think about:

• Laptops and equipment
• Software licenses
• Phone and internet stipends
• Security and compliance systems

Some staffing firms intentionally minimize these investments to maximize profit margins. Lower benefits. Minimal support. Bare-bones tooling.

We’ve taken the opposite approach.

Strong benefits and reliable infrastructure help attract stronger talent, improve retention, and create a better overall consultant experience. In a competitive market, talented people have options. The firms that invest in their consultants tend to attract the people clients actually want to hire.

And from the client side, that stability matters. Consultants who feel supported are generally more engaged, more reliable, and more likely to stay through the life of an engagement.

READ MORE: Hiring managers: 4 questions to ask when choosing a consulting agency for contract roles

3. In-role consultant support

The best staffing firms don’t disappear after placement. Without active support, small issues can become major retention problems.

That’s why we invest in ongoing consultant support, including:

• Regular employee check-ins
• Career guidance
• Contral renewal support
• IT troubleshooting and onboarding help
• Recognition gifts and morale boosters
• Team events and community building

This layer of support often gets overlooked because it’s harder to quantify than payroll or benefits. But it has a real impact on performance and retention.

Consultants who feel connected and valued tend to communicate better, ramp faster, and stay engaged longer. Clients benefit from fewer disruptions, stronger continuity, and better long-term relationships with the people on their teams.

In other words: support isn’t fluff. It’s operational stability.

4. Recruiting, operations, and business support

This final bucket is the cost of actually running a staffing business.

Behind every successful placement is an operational engine that includes:

• Sourcing, vetting, and staying connected with top talent
• Sales and account management
• Payroll administration
• HR and compliance support
• Finance and accounting
• Legal oversight

And yes—profit.

Why this matters

Healthy businesses need margin in order to continue investing in people, tools, and service quality. The problem isn’t that staffing firms make money. The problem is when firms maximize profit by cutting support everywhere else.

That shows up eventually in the form of poor communication, weak recruiting, consultant turnover, and inconsistent delivery.

Two firms may quote similar rates while delivering completely different consultant experiences and wildly different levels of support.

At 2A, we’d rather build a model that supports both the client and the consultant for the long term. Better-supported people tend to do better work. And in staffing, better work is what everyone is actually paying for.

By Abby Breckenridge

Image by Guangyi Li

Subject matter experts can be B2B tech marketers’ most persuasive storytellers—and they can also be their biggest bottleneck. SMEs—we’re talking engineers, product owners, key customers, strategic partners—have the insights your audience craves, and they’re also busy doing the actual job. Accessing their knowledge and getting their sign-off can take weeks, and that’s time that neither the marketer nor the SME has to spare.

That’s where we come in. Here are three ways we can help you build effective, voice-of-the-expert content without burning your relationship with your SMEs, or impacting your schedule.

1. We’re already ramped, so we don’t need much of their time

Nothing drains goodwill faster than asking an SME to brain dump everything. We come in pre-loaded on your solutions, your space, and your audience. That means we ask sharper questions, need fewer meetings, and can translate rough input into something polished. Your SMEs stay focused on their day jobs, and still sound brilliant.

2. We run the process, so you don’t have to

Scheduling, follow-ups, wrangling feedback—it adds up fast. And it usually falls on marketing to manage it all. We take that off your plate. As active project managers, we coordinate directly with SMEs, adjust to accommodate their needs and preferences, and make sure deadlines don’t slip. You get progress without the overhead.

3. We turn expertise into assets that work

Great insights are only half the equation. The real win is packaging them into content your audience needs and your SMEs are proud of. We shape raw takes into clear, compelling assets—eBooks, videos, case studies, whatever you need—that land with your target audience and reflect well on the experts behind them.

Bottom line

You don’t need more time from your SMEs—you need to make better use of it. That’s how you get stronger content, faster timelines, and happier experts.

By Nora Bright, Carolyn Lange

Image by Emily Zheng

A good CMO brings strategy, focus, leadership, and a sharp point of view on how marketing should support growth.

They also bring a full-time executive salary.

For some companies, that investment makes sense. For others, it’s not quite time. Maybe your marketing team is still small. Maybe your budget is better spent on execution. You need senior guidance, but not 40 hours a week of it. That’s where a fractional CMO can fit.

A fractional CMO gives you access to senior-level marketing leadership without hiring a full-time executive. They can help set strategy, sharpen messaging, guide your team, evaluate performance, and make sure marketing is doing more than keeping everyone very, very busy.

Because “busy” is not the same thing as “working.”

Here are five signs it may be time to bring in a fractional CMO.

1. You don’t know what success looks like

Your team is posting. Campaigns are running. Emails are going out. Someone is definitely making a spreadsheet. But when you ask how marketing is performing, the answer gets fuzzy.

That usually sounds like:

• “Website traffic is up, but we’re not sure if it’s the right traffic.”
• “The newsletter performed well, depending on how you define well.”
• “We got a lot of leads, but sales says they weren’t good leads.”
• “We’re tracking a bunch of metrics, but nobody really knows which ones matter.”

This is one of the clearest signs that marketing needs leadership. Without agreed-upon goals, teams end up measuring activity instead of impact. They can tell you what shipped, but not what changed because of it.

A fractional CMO can help define what success actually means for your business. That might include KPIs, reporting rhythms, campaign benchmarks, attribution models, or better alignment between marketing and sales.

2. Your messaging isn’t landing

Sometimes the problem isn’t your marketing channels, but what you’re saying.

Your sales deck says one thing. Your website says another. And that inconsistency can cost you.

When messaging isn’t clear, prospects have to do too much work. They have to figure out what you do, who it’s for, why it matters, and how you’re different from the other companies saying something suspiciously similar.

Messaging issues can show up in a few ways:

• Prospects understand the category but not your differentiation.
• Sales calls spend too much time explaining the basics.
• Content gets traffic but does not convert.
• Internal teams describe the product, service, or company differently.
• Your website sounds polished, but not especially specific.

A fractional CMO can help clarify your positioning and create messaging that actually gives your team something useful to work with. That may include refining your value proposition, tightening your audience definition, sharpening competitive differentiation, or building messaging frameworks that sales, marketing, and leadership can all use.

3. You’re unsure if your marketing mix makes sense

You’ve got it all: A little paid search here. A webinar program there. A few events because competitors are showing up. Some SEO and a social media calendar because someone said they’re important. Maybe a podcast. Maybe a booth with stress balls, if things have gone too far.

Individually, none of these tactics are necessarily wrong, but do they make sense together?

A fractional CMO can step back and look at the full picture:

• Which channels are helping move the business forward?
• Which ones are consuming budget without clear return?
• Where are you over-invested?
• Where are you under-invested?
• Are your tactics aligned to your audience and sales cycle?
• Are you trying to do too many things at once?

This is especially important for companies that have grown quickly or changed direction. The marketing plan that made sense two years ago may not fit the business you are today.

READ MORE: 7 questions to ask when hiring a marketing consultant

A fractional CMO can audit your current efforts and help refocus your resources on the channels most likely to drive results. Sometimes that means adding something new. Often, it means finally letting something go.

RIP to the campaign that technically still exists but no one can explain why.

4. You know something is off, but you’re not sure what

Revenue is not where it should be, leads are inconsistent, and sales conversations are stalling.

Maybe it’s the messaging. Maybe it’s the targeting. Maybe the sales handoff is broken.

Maybe it’s all of the above, which is rude but possible.

When you’re inside the business every day, it can be hard to see the real issue. Teams get close to their own assumptions. They inherit decisions from earlier stages of the company. They keep doing what has always been done because no one has had the time, authority, or distance to question it.

A fractional CMO brings outside perspective and pattern recognition. They’ve usually seen similar problems across different companies, growth stages, and markets. That makes it easier to spot what’s actually happening and what needs to change.

This doesn’t mean they walk in with a magic answer on day one—they just know where to look. They can evaluate the strategy, team structure, messaging, funnel, performance data, and customer journey to identify the gaps that are holding marketing back.

5. Your marketing team needs a leader

A lot of companies have capable people doing marketing work. They have a junior marketer, a content person, a designer, an agency, a freelancer, or some combination of people keeping the machine moving.

What they don’t have is someone clearly leading the function.

That gap shows up fast.

Without senior marketing leadership, teams can struggle with:

• Prioritizing work
• Connecting campaigns to business goals
• Deciding where budget should go
• Saying no to low-value requests
• Creating consistent messaging
• Setting performance expectations
• Translating leadership ideas into an actual marketing plan

This is how marketing teams become very productive in a way that doesn’t necessarily move the business forward. A fractional CMO can give execution teams the direction they need. They can help decide what matters most, what can wait, and what should never have become a priority in the first place.

For smaller teams, that leadership is important. Junior marketers often have the energy and skill to execute, but they may not have the experience to build strategy, manage stakeholders, allocate budget, or push back when every department wants “just one quick thing.”

Fractional CMOs fill the gap

A fractional CMO is not the right fit for every company. Some businesses truly need a full-time executive. But if your marketing has momentum without direction, activity without measurement, or a team without a leader, a fractional CMO may be the missing piece.

They can be hands-on, helping build the plan and guide the work. They can act as a strategic advisor, giving leadership teams the perspective they need to make better decisions. Or they can sit somewhere in between, offering structure, accountability, and senior-level guidance without the full-time overhead.

The point is not to add another voice to the room. It’s to add the right kind of leadership.

At 2A Recruiting & Staffing, we help companies figure out what kind of marketing leadership they actually need—and connect them with experienced fractional CMOs who can step in and help.

If your marketing feels stuck, scattered, or harder than it should be, we can help you find the person who knows what to fix first.

Reach out to 2A Recruiting & Staffing

By Jack Foraker, Mike Lahoda

Image by Guangyi Li

Consider the cloud. 

It’s one of the most effective metaphors in tech marketing. Distributed infrastructure isn’t exactly intuitive, but “cloud” computing is. It doesn’t explain how the technology works, but it captures how it feels. Accessible. Airy. Always there. 

That kind of clarity doesn’t happen by accident. It results from deliberate storytelling, like we do at 2A. In B2B marketing, especially cloud and infrastructure, the actual products are often dense. Think architecture diagrams and latency benchmarks. But we speak from experience when we say that behind the specs is often a simpler story of a team solving a problem that mattered. 

For example, take our work with a major cloud provider. In a recent case study, a financial infrastructure firm re-engineered core systems, cutting total cost of ownership and reducing latency across its index engine. On paper, this is a story about compute instances and architecture. But in practice, it’s about innovation in a market where milliseconds matter. 

How did we get there? Here’s our approach to working with technical and business stakeholders to create work that a broader B2B audience can follow. 

Start with the problem, not just the product 

Product messaging is a great place to start with a new project, but we prefer to go one step further. 

Our process typically starts with a structured intake to establish the baseline, followed by conversations with the people closest to the work. Engineers bring the implementation details—the tradeoffs, constraints, and things that didn’t work the first time. 

Sometimes the technical details can be a bit hard to grasp, but that’s to be expected. (We’re marketers, not developers!) We ask questions to encourage translation: What surprised you about the solution? What changed once this was live? Those answers tend to surface what actually matters to a broader business audience. 

Decide what matters, skip the rest 

Good technical storytelling isn’t simplification. What we’re trying to do is prioritize. What actually moves the story forward? What belongs in a diagram versus a headline? What’s critical for a developer audience versus what resonates with a CTO evaluating infrastructure investments? 

A lot of technical content breaks down when it tries to say everything. Detailed architectures, full timelines, every feature and workload—all of it might be true, but not all of it will be useful in a marketing context. 

Part of our job at 2A is shaping the narrative by being selective. When it works, the result earns engagement from both crowds, the technical experts and the business decision makers. Because the goal isn’t to make complex technology simple. It’s to make it clear.

By Nora Bright

Image by Jenni Lydell

Clients are increasingly asking me how our recruiters use AI at 2A Recruiting & Staffing.

The truth is, AI is making it easier for candidates to apply to more jobs, leading to a surge in applications, and recruiters need good tools to sort through them. However, the reality of how we use AI is more nuanced than many people assume.

We use AI to make our process more efficient, but we don’t use it for making decisions about which candidates to phone screen, or which to pass along to our clients. To better understand what AI recruiting tools we use, it helps to differentiate between automation and AI:

Automation: Ways to improve efficiency and organization, but not evaluate candidates.

• Calendaring
• Email templates
• Knockout questions in our ATS (multiple choice questions that filter candidates, like “Do you live on the West Coast?” if a PT time zone is required)

AI: A synthesizer of information, a thinking partner, and a speedy writer

• Drafting job descriptions with inclusive, effective language, using our 2A template
• Getting us up to speed on new industries or roles
• Brainstorming candidate profiles and sourcing strategies
• Drafting or refining candidate summaries sent to clients

Do you use AI for resume screening?

The answer is no, not yet. AI tools for reviewing resumes just aren’t that good right now. Our ATS has an AI resume screening tool that I’ve piloted, and I’ve often found myself disagreeing with it. Beyond sometimes failing to see a basic match between role and candidate, the tool also doesn’t know everything I do about a particular team or a manager that I may have gained from years of experience working with them. For creative roles, it doesn’t work well at all. For example, it can’t review a graphic design portfolio or watch a video reel. And many resumes we get are unreadable by our ATS.

Of course, the potential for bias in AI looms heavy in my mind as well, and I’m mindful of not perpetuating inequities that already exist in hiring. There’s growing research showing that AI resume screening tools can reflect and even amplify historical biases in hiring data. And as a recruiter, the idea that I might miss the perfect candidate is enough to keep me up at night. Ultimately, it doesn’t seem that the benefits outweigh the risks.

AI can’t replace the human side of recruiting

I certainly don’t use any AI tools to interview candidates on our behalf. I see a big part of my job as building relationships with our candidates, so these tools seem counterproductive. I have tried out AI notetaking tools during phone screens, especially for technical roles where there’s lots of technical details. Generally, we avoid them because being recorded and transcribed can make candidates feel awkward, and can make it harder to build real relationships.

So much of what makes a great recruiter is their relationships with candidates. The best recruiters I’ve worked with know their candidates deeply. At a previous firm, we used to joke that one of our senior recruiters could tell you not just a candidate’s career history, but the names of their kids—and their pets. When it comes to negotiating a tricky deal, or getting a candidate to lay their cards on the table when it matters, candidate relationships are extremely important.

I really believe in 2A’s focus on kindness and taking care of our people, and for me that starts with the candidate experience. I’m a “helper” at heart, and giving one job seeker, who might be navigating a brutal job search, a good experience, makes me feel I’ve done something meaningful that day. And it’s also the part of the job that’s hardest to replicate with technology.

Automation and AI can speed things up, but ultimately the human touch is still just as essential in our recruiting process.

By Andrea Swangard, The 2A Team

Image by Rachel Adams

People talk about the importance of taking breaks, but don’t always ‘fess up to what that looks like in practice. At a creative agency, those moments matter because fresh perspective is the work. When you’re deep in a problem, it’s easy to get stuck circling the same ideas. Stepping away can be the quickest way to reset your thinking and see the work differently. So we asked the team a simple question: when you need to hit reset, what’s your go-to move? Here’s what a few 2Aers had to say.

How we pause (and come back better)

When I need a break from staring at my computer, I love to doodle with a pen and paper. The drawings are usually silly, but sometimes they turn into something cool. And my eyes and hands appreciate the time off from screens and a keyboard.
—Andrea Swangard

Over the past year, I’ve been learning French, and it’s become my favorite way to reset during a busy workday. When I need a break, I make myself a nice pour-over coffee and listen to a Coffee Break French lesson. It’s a small ritual that helps me mentally step away, transports me back to France for just a moment, and feels like a little win in the middle of a hectic day.
—Salena Hill

When I need a reset, I go for a walk. I get to exit the building, get my blood flowing, and be reminded that the world is bigger than what’s in my head. Bonus points if there’s some sun involved, but that’s not always a sure thing in Seattle.
—Abby Breckenridge

In sunny Arizona, the best way to clear my mind is to get outside. During the spring and summer, a midday walk is often too hot, so soaking my feet in the pool and listening to a couple of songs usually refreshes my mind and fills me up with vitamin D and energy.
—Tammy Monson

Now that I’m a full-fledged gardener (I own a Plant Mom hat), if I get the chance to throw on my garden shoes and get my hands dirty, I’m in. Digging holes, moving plants around, chucking soil all over the driveway pretending to know what I’m doing… judging my neighbor for planting yet another hydrangea (like, bro, the world of plants is vast, yo). Never in my wildest dreams did I think this would be the thing that brings me peace, and yet here I am, casually knowing how big a cubic yard of compost should be.
—Felip Ballesteros

I love playing with my Maltipoo pup Maggie as a quick break. Our favorite game is called “Find It.” I hide kibble in different spots around my apartment one at a time and let her sniff each one out.
—Nora Bright

Sometimes when I need a break, I like to phone a friend (or family member). Just a few minutes talking to someone on the phone gets my mind off work and helps me reset.
—Rachel Adams

It depends on what I’m taking a break from! It might be a quick dance party to shake the stress off, or a walk with the pups and a good album to keep me company. If I’m really looking for some Zen, I might head to my snake Nori’s bio-active terrarium to play around in the dirt and check out the roly-polies and springtails. If I need to laugh, I hop on my PC and play a few games with friends—usually Arc Raiders, because I live by the goop, die by the goop.
—Ashley JoEtta

I’m a big fan of a 5-minute hammock hang outdoors. Bonus points if one of my fur babies is up for a cuddle.
—Michelle Najarian

Walks with my dog Eli, shooting some hoops, or a few minutes of rolling some putts.
—Jeff Salvado

Sometimes I just want to check off an easier task, so I can go back to work feeling accomplished. That may mean wiping down a counter, picking up dog toys, knitting a new row, or reorganizing hundreds of books in order of genre and subgenre, broken down by rating system. You know, easy things.
—Carolyn Lange

I’m a big sports fan, so I enjoy checking out the latest news and rumors about my favorite teams and watching a highlight or two. It reminds me how glad I am not to have a job where everything I do is in front of an audience and committed to video forever.
—Kimberly Mass

A lot of times I need a break from work, but I also need the gears in my brain to keep turning. That’s when I jumpstart a little adrenaline into my system by taking a typing test. I like to think my elementary school digital tools teacher would be proud. (My favorite site to use is monkeytype.com!)
—Emily Zheng

If I want to step away from the desk for a break, I’m most likely taking the doggo, Mabel, for a quick walk in the Denver sunshine (sorry to sunshine brag, Seattleites). But if I need a break and am still glued to my screen, I love scouring Google Maps and other mapping sites for hikes, bike rides, rivers, and general outside places to explore.
—Mike Lahoda

By Andrea Swangard, Felip Ballesteros

Image by Emily Zheng

Creative projects rarely go off track because of execution alone. More often, the root cause is a lack of alignment at the start. The audience or message isn’t clearly defined, or success means different things to different stakeholders. That’s where a strong creative brief comes in: not as a formality, but as a way to get everyone on the same page before the work begins.

I sat down with 2A consultant Felip Ballesteros to unpack what actually makes a creative brief useful and how it changes the way teams work.

Q: Let’s start simple. What is a creative brief, really?

Felip: Most people think of a creative brief as a form or a process. That’s where things go wrong. A creative brief is a point of view. It’s your perspective on what you’re building, who it’s for, and why it matters. It pulls from the client’s goals, the team’s experience, and most importantly, the customer’s reality.

Q: Who should own the creative brief?

Felip: It’s a shared process, but it needs a clear owner.

On the client side, you want one stakeholder who’s accountable for aligning internal perspectives. That doesn’t mean they work alone—they should bring input from marketing, sales, and SMEs. But too many voices directly shaping the brief usually leads to something vague that tries to do too much.

On the agency side, we often end up driving the process. In many cases, the brief doesn’t exist when a project starts, so we build it based on the SOW, early conversations, and what we know.

Q: What makes a strong creative brief stand out?

Felip: Two important things! First, it defines how the asset should feel. Not in abstract terms, but in a way the team can actually interpret and execute. Second, it defines what not to do. A good brief narrows the path forward without having to list constraints. It gives direction. That’s what makes it powerful. It’s simple, but it drives decisions.

Q: What are the most important elements to include?

Felip: The specifics matter, but what matters more is how clearly you define them. A strong brief gets very precise about the audience and why they should care right now. Not just who they are, but what’s happening in their world that makes this asset relevant.

It also anchors the work in a real moment. For example, where does this animation show up? What’s happening right before someone sees this first call deck, and what do you want them to do next? If you can clearly connect the audience, the moment, and the outcome, the rest of the brief tends to fall into place.

Q: How does a strong brief impact the creative process?

Felip: It speeds everything up, because the brief forces early decisions. It clarifies the full story up front, not just the asset, but the transformation we’re trying to create. With that clarity, the team isn’t debating direction later. Feedback becomes sharper, revisions are faster, and you get to a solid first version sooner.

It prevents expensive mistakes, too. If you miss something early, you might be reworking design or animation later, and that’s where timelines and budgets start to slip.

Q: Do creative briefs need to be perfect before you start?

Felip: Not at all. A brief is inherently imperfect. Waiting until you have every detail figured out is one of the biggest reasons teams don’t create one. Even if it’s incomplete, it gives you direction. And even if it’s wrong, it’s something you can react to and refine. That’s much better than starting with nothing!

Q: Any advice for teams that struggle to make briefs feel useful or inspiring?

Felip: Focus on conviction, not creativity. A brief doesn’t need to sound bold or innovative, it just needs to make sense. When the brief has a strong, believable point of view, that’s what makes it useful. That’s what gives the creative team something to build on.

Q: Thanks for these insights, Felip! Any final guidance for teams building a creative brief?

Felip: If you’re not sure where to start, focus on asking the right questions to make sure the brief is doing its job:

• Who is this for, specifically?
• Why should they care right now?
• Where and how will this asset be used?
• What are the 2–3 key messages?
• What tone and energy should this have?
• What do we want the audience to do next?

If you can answer those questions clearly, you’re already ahead of most teams. And if you need some expert guidance, we’re here to help.

By Michelle Najarian, Kimberly Mass

Image by Rachel Adams

Wine and cheese? A classic. Wine and chocolate? A reward on a Tuesday. Wine and… french fries? Surprisingly, yes. The salt, the fat, the acidity—each balances the other out. One cuts through, one smooths things over, and one keeps you coming back for the next bite.

The best pairings aren’t always obvious. They’re the ones where each makes the other just a little bit better.

Turns out, that idea holds up beyond the glass. Here are three unexpected asset pairings we’re enjoying right now:

• Messaging + animation: A messaging framework gives you the 100-word version of your story: clear, consistent, and ready to use across internal teams. Animation brings that language to life visually for an external audience. Take the core message, build it into a short sizzle, and layer in specific use cases viewers relate to.
  
• Email + first call deck: When you pair an email with a first call deck from the beginning, the story doesn’t restart—it continues. The same consistent message shows up again, with more depth. Adding a slide in an email gives a glimpse of what’s next. A phrase in the deck recalls what first sparked interest. The journey feels connected, because it is.
  
• Playbook + video explainer: Playbooks are built for depth—all the details teams need, all in one place. Video adds a human layer, with short explainers keyed to critical moments: a quick walkthrough to get oriented, a step-by-step for the parts that matter most, a summary with just the highlights.

Like any good pairing, it’s not about more—it’s about what works better together. At 2A, we help teams find those perfect combinations and bring them to life.