Tearing down silos and fragmentation in media buying and brand experiences are among the problems Bruce Williams, CEO of Dentsu X North America, is trying to solve for his clients.
Speaking last month at ADWEEK’s Brandweek 2026 in Atlanta, Georgia, Williams noted that solving these issues by delivering connected marketing experiences should lead to positive interactions between the consumer and the brand.
The executive shared his comments during the “Media As a Flywheel For Growth” session, hosted by ADWEEK chief brand and community officer Jenny Rooney, which examined how media is at the center of consumer and brand experiences, acting as a gateway to cross-channel innovation.
According to Williams, fragmentation is a key issue that needs to be addressed for a campaign to work cohesively. The executive noted that brands should move beyond “experience planning,” which is creating consumer experiences by stitching together media, data, content, and tech in a siloed method.
The goal is for the full campaign to work together.
With that in mind, Williams noted the value of “experience platforming,” which is melding teams and capabilities by having them all working systematically together to bring the campaign to life.
Williams cited one of Dentsu X’s clients, Heineken, and explained that the brand had created systems that enabled it to work together across markets and bidirectionally, from agency to brand.
Ultimately, the cohesive strategy brought together competitive data, store data, and local market intelligence, giving teams the ability to funnel that information directly into decision-making and activation at scale at local market levels.
Utilizing this go-to-market plan, outcomes came back to the brand, as well as franchisees, stakeholders, stores, divisions, and a variety of other endpoints.
“It’s just different ways in which we can think about using scale solutions and point ourselves to, ‘How are we building for that?’ But also be scrappier and nimbler,” Williams said.
