Guest · The future of agencies
Mark Lainas
President, Coolr
President of Coolr's US business, leading its expansion into the American market. A self-described disruptor from years inside the big holding companies, now building something faster.
About
Mark Lainas is President of Coolr's US business, leading the agency's expansion into the American market. He spent more than fifteen years in the UK and the last six or seven in the US, across agencies including Ogilvy and BBDO, where he describes himself as a disruptor inside the big holding companies. His role at Coolr is to act as a bridge, taking the operating model that works in the UK and Europe and tuning it for US culture and communities rather than simply exporting it.
Mark joined Coolr because he had not seen anything like it. After years inside the big holding companies, he saw an agency that genuinely understood culture, community and creativity and had put it into an operating model that was fast and performance-driven. What drew him was the chance to deploy that model in the largest, most diverse media market in the world.
His own value, he argues, is as a translator. Fifteen years in the UK and the last several in the US give him a foot in both cultures, and he is clear that the US business cannot simply be the UK business shipped overseas. He uses the analogy of The Office: same operating model, same craft and process, rebuilt for the local tone, humour and communities. Halloween, Thanksgiving, the Super Bowl, the sub-cultures that shift year over year, none of it translates if you do not live in the market.
He is blunt about why the timing matters. The US agency landscape, in his view, is failing clients at both extremes: big holding companies claiming to do everything and doing none of it well, or a sprawl of hyper-specialists each optimising their own narrow slice. Coolr's offer is to do the whole of social exceptionally well under one roof. In 2025 US social viewership overtakes linear TV for the first time, and a CMO who is not building from social, he argues, has the order wrong.
Career23 years
- 2025 to now Coolr President
- 2021 to 2025 United Collective
- 2017 to 2025 Ideas Foundation Board Director and Trustee
- 2018 to 2021
Show earlier roles: Ogilvy, glue Isobar, London agency roots
- 2012 to 2018 Ogilvy
- 2010 to 2012 glue Isobar Group Account Director on Aviva, Toyota UK and Kellogg's pan-European
- 2003 to 2010 London agency roots
How Mark thinks3 convictions
-
A bridge, not an export
Coolr's US business cannot be the UK business shipped overseas. Same craft, same methodology, rebuilt for American tone, humour and communities, the way a hit sitcom is remade rather than subtitled.
-
The market is failing clients
The US landscape splits into holding companies overpromising and hyper-specialists optimising their own narrow KPI. Coolr's case is to do the whole of social exceptionally well under one roof, which Mark believes too few agencies offer.
-
Social is the plan, not a line in it
In 2025 US social viewership overtakes linear TV for the first time. A marketing plan that does not start with social has the order wrong, and the CMOs who admit they find the space complex are the ones Coolr can help most.
