Nick Beck: The Search Return

John Horsley How did you get to where you are today?

Nick Beck I started at Ogilvy in 1998 and saw a gap in search engine marketing, PPC and SEO. I believed it was never just a media buy, because creative could change click-through rate and conversion rate. I started TUG in 2006 in the basement of Vice magazine on Leonard Street, and 20 years on we are back on Leonard Street.

John Horsley How has TUG evolved since those early search days?

Nick Beck We started as a search agency, then became a performance agency, then a media agency. Now we talk about full funnel media plus technology, or brand, performance and technology. What is interesting is that I am talking about search again, because search now includes SEO, PPC, GEO, AI search and social search across platforms like YouTube, Instagram and TikTok. AI has disrupted a lot of what people thought they knew about search, so it is a big conversation again.

John Horsley How do you see paid media developing inside AI platforms like ChatGPT?

Nick Beck I own a media agency, so I am excited about the opportunity for clients and the further fragmentation of the usual walled gardens. At the same time, I am sceptical, because AI search will become AI assistants and people will need to trust those assistants. There is a real question over whether the first engine that pushes too hard into paid loses trust with consumers. It is interesting that Claude is publicly saying it will stay away from paid, while Gemini has not really done it either, so I am watching closely.

John Horsley When you look back on building TUG into a global agency, what were the pivotal moments?

Nick Beck The growth has usually come from client opportunity. We are very client centric, and that matters. You build trust with a client, then they want you in another market, and that helps you grow. The challenge is building more than a set of local offices. You need the balance between local relationships, local partnerships and local clients, while also using the network to deliver for global clients.

John Horsley Has performance marketing made marketing more accountable, or too focused on short-term results?

Nick Beck It has definitely made marketing more accountable. I came from an advertising world that was often based on smart opinions, whereas performance marketing is about showing evidence. The risk is over-optimising yourself into a corner and only targeting demand that already existed. That is why the balance between brand building and performance matters so much, because that is what helps a business grow.

John Horsley Do you think brand investment is becoming more important again?

Nick Beck Yes, and AI is one reason why. We have been making the case that brand matters even more in this environment. The signals that tell people a brand is established are the same signals AI picks up. So if you are thinking about discoverability, investment in brand can also improve AI discoverability.

John Horsley When companies want to improve marketing effectiveness, where do they usually get stuck?

Nick Beck Everything starts with data. A lot of companies believe their data is right, but when you dig in, the flow and infrastructure are often not set up properly, especially for AI. At the same time, having lots of data does not mean you will make the right decisions. Humans still need to interpret the signals, find the insight and connect it back to strategy and the big idea.

John Horsley Are brands often measuring the wrong things?

Nick Beck Yes. CPA is the obvious example, and ROAS can create the same problem. If you focus too narrowly on those measures, you can optimise yourself into a corner. It is important to keep growing new audiences, growing the brand in different ways, and then capturing that through performance and optimisation.

John Horsley How should brands balance global consistency with local relevance?

Nick Beck It is tough, and the brands that get it right do very well. You need a global strategy, a global belief, a global manifesto and a shared way of working, but you also need local execution, local partnerships and local flair. I have also learned that over-centralising can look good on paper but fall short in practice. Often the best way to build local offices is to send people from within the business who understand the culture and can translate it into the local market.

John Horsley Will AI improve marketing decisions, or reduce strategic thinking?

Nick Beck AI will help us learn faster, and that is important. I tell our staff it is there to assist them and help them become smarter, faster and better. The risk comes when the insight is weak, because AI can scale a bad decision very quickly. That is why human judgement still matters.

John Horsley Does marketing need to become more human again?

Nick Beck Definitely. You need smart people who are in touch with their own feelings, local feelings and the brand, so they can work through the data and make the right decisions. I still believe people are best placed to do that. We are still a people business, and that applies to teams, clients and creators. Our motto is work hard and be nice to people, and I think that still matters.

John Horsley How are you using AI in content work?

Nick Beck We started in 2022 with a large global client that needed help understanding how Google saw its products versus its competitors. That led us to build a technology called Helpful Content, which analyses how Google and ChatGPT understand a product, a page and its content, then makes recommendations at scale to make that content more helpful and relevant. We use it with brands including Carwow, especially in competitive markets where moving from position 3 to position 1 makes a big difference. We built it for clients, but now our own content teams use it across briefs as well.

John Horsley Are clients looking for help with storytelling and creator content?

Nick Beck Yes, absolutely. We are seeing a lot of growth in influencers, and that is part of how brands build their story now. Platforms like TikTok and Meta make it easier to brief micro influencers and content creators, and we have seen strong results when creator content is used inside social ad units. With clients from MoneyGram to Chamäleon in Berlin, we have seen acquisition costs come down and conversion rates improve.

John Horsley Are micro influencers proving more effective?

Nick Beck That is what we are finding, especially at scale. People do not need to know the creator already. They need to see someone a bit like them being authentic. I also found it interesting that some larger creators now welcome paid media support behind their content, because they want a balance between organic reach and paid distribution.

John Horsley What do you make of the creator economy becoming more professionalised?

Nick Beck It is impressive, but I do think there is a risk. As creators become businesses with managers, longer briefs, scripts and more meetings, some of the speed and immediacy can fade. One of the strengths of the creator economy was that brands could move quickly and do things in the moment. More structure brings professionalism, but it can also make the work less impactful and less authentic.

John Horsley Are we moving towards an economy built on trust and relatability?

Nick Beck Yes. We need to trust creators, and we also need to trust AI. I also think the word authenticity gets overused. The more useful question is whether a person can relate to the product and relate to the content.

John Horsley What kinds of brands do you work with?

Nick Beck We have always wanted to be strong in our channels and work across multiple verticals, rather than specialising in one sector. We work with healthcare, insurance, B2B, charities and education. We are global agency of record for Merlin Entertainments and we handle paid media globally for MoneyGram. I have always believed we should be good at the channels, stay curious and help brands unlock opportunity.

John Horsley Is there a dream client you would love to work with?

Nick Beck Monzo stands out to me because it does a strong job on brand while linking back to product functionality and performance. I would also love to work with a large shoe brand like Puma across 40 markets. What we would bring is a deep understanding of platforms, plus strategic support in a far more complicated media environment than brands were dealing with 5 years ago. With Reddit, Pinterest, TikTok and AI search all growing in importance, brands need help navigating that complexity.

John Horsley What marketing metric do people obsess over too much?

Nick Beck CPA.

John Horsley What marketing idea do you think is overhyped?

Nick Beck I think data-driven attribution is overhyped. What matters more is looking causally at incrementality to understand where growth is really coming from, and you cannot get that from data-driven attribution alone.

John Horsley Which brand do you think is doing great marketing right now?

Nick Beck Nike is interesting. Even while it has been in decline, I have noticed that it still invests in things that may be hard to measure, like podcasts. It has always been willing to take those kinds of risks.

John Horsley What advice would you give someone starting out in marketing?

Nick Beck Work hard and be nice to people. Stay curious. The people who keep exploring and playing around tend to become the strongest team members, and they usually enjoy the work more as well.