The CEO of Thesis talks about AI, authentic experience and why the digital creative agency is not abandoning DEI.
When Keely York started at eROI 13 years ago, the firm was small and focused on email marketing. York started at entry level as an account coordinator, gradually working her way up to account manager, creative officer and then president of the agency. In 2019 eROI rebranded as Thesis, a full-service creative agency focused on performance marketing as well as operations and integration support and conceptual creative work. And in 2022, York became CEO, succeeding founder Ryan Buchanan (who remains co-owner and a member of the firm’s advisory board). The idea, York says, was to “create a different agency model amidst a very interesting landscape.”
“The oncoming headwinds have felt pretty relentless the last five years,” York says. The pandemic upended every industry in the world, including marketing, “but it’s also been everything after that. It’s been the ripple effect. It’s been the economic changes. It’s been the political implications. It’s been shifts in how people want to work and just human behavior, consumer behavior.”
Another setback came in 2023 when Isaac Lee Morris, a former chief product officer for Thesis, was charged with embezzling more than $100,000 from the agency (a separate civil suit tallies the losses at $815,000). The following summer a Multnomah County circuit court judge dropped the criminal case as Morris was unable to find counsel due to a shortage of public defenders in the state. York declined to comment on the matter for this story, but according to a spokesperson for the Multnomah County District Attorney’s office, the criminal case is “very much open,” with a trial scheduled in December.
Through those headwinds, Thesis has persevered. One of the top creative agencies in the state by headcount (with 172 people on payroll as of last fall), Thesis’ clients include Estée Lauder, Airtable, MLS and Throne.
In July York met with Oregon Business at Thesis’ Slabtown headquarters — a four-story mass-timber building constructed in 2024 — to talk about what digital marketing looks like in 2025.
“Consumers are looking for more authenticity and relatability in the marketing and advertising they’re seeing from the brands that they purchase from, and that they’re followers of,” York says. “So I’m trying to kind of set us up internally to configure us in a way that’s going to serve where this space is headed, but also simultaneously not looking too far out, where you’re pre-planning for things that may or may not happen.”
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What are you hearing from clients right now, as far as what they’re looking for? A few months ago, I was hearing that there was a lot of hesitancy around ad spends.
I think hesitancy is the best way to describe the environment that we’re in right now. It’s not like it was when we entered into the pandemic. I would say for the first year and a half — maybe two years — into the pandemic, the entire world tilted digital. We were shut down; we were remote. Brick and mortar did not exist in the same way that it did [before], so brands were really leaning on digital marketing efforts. They were leaning on email more than ever. They were leaning on digital activations. The world has kind of come back out on the other side a little bit. We’re not in that period anymore where we’re all leaning digital. I think we’re in a period that really exemplifies what true partnership looks like. We have clients that we deeply respect, and it’s our job to kind of see them through this, and it’s our job to work with them and to make the budgets that they do have go the furthest, and get really creative and innovative about how we’re spending that budget. But yes, we’re in a period of pullback, for sure. And I think everyone’s feeling that a little bit. I think the brands are feeling it. I think agencies are feeling it as well.
When you talk about people shifting away from digital a little bit, what are people wanting to spend on now?
I think digital is still the primary channel. Obviously, that’s the space that we’re in, so that’s what we feel. I think there’s reprioritization within digital. Earlier on, it was more activation-based. We were doing a lot of high-volume production. We were doing heavily email work and output, and that still very much is a priority, and it’s an ROI driver. That’s something that is our bread and butter, and we’re going to always be in that. But what I am seeing a shift in — and maybe more of an expansion into — is wanting to explore multichannel when it comes to digital efforts, and wanting to explore user-generated content, and really looking at how AI can be leveraged to allow budgets to be stretched further and to help assist with output, especially in the production world.
I think, lastly, that conceptual and visual creative is a big space where it’s a moment and an opportunity for brands to come forth and produce that ad, produce that film, that maybe is 30, 60 seconds, and it really gives the consumers this unmatched experience for what that brand is representing and what they’re putting out into the world. I feel like we’re seeing an expansion beyond performance marketing — which is still absolutely a key priority — but we’re seeing expansion to these other spaces, and we’re working to kind of meet that demand and stay ahead of it and innovate within it, and be a driver for it instead of being responsive to it. I think it’s more of an expansion and less a move away from digital. All channels are on the table right now, and clients are wanting multipronged solutions.
You mentioned AI. How are you currently using AI, or looking at using AI in your work?
I think it’s a question that we talk about daily, if not weekly. I feel like other CEOs that I’ve spoken to, they’re in similar spaces and are also navigating the same moment. None of us know where AI is going to go at this moment in time. We know it’s very real, it’s here, right? It’s not, like, knocking on our door; it is in the room with us, and it is hyper critical that we leverage it for a lot of different reasons. But we also don’t know where it’s going to be in two or three or five years. It’s still this nebulous thing that’s constantly evolving and changing. I just think it’s important for us to continue to watch and not necessarily pre-plan for where it might be going in the next several years. What we’re doing with it internally right now is ultimately trying to leverage it for production-side work, so that if we’re looking at 300 clicks, we’re leveraging things like AI to take that down to half or less of what was previously being done — so that we can leverage that talent that previously was employee-based and level that talent to more conceptual thinking and creative work, which AI is not necessarily capable or shouldn’t be in the space of.
One of the reasons that I was interested in that is that earlier you mentioned that consumers are wanting more authenticity and engagement, and a lot of generative AI does not give you those feelings of authenticity and connection. It’s very alienating. It sounds like you’re not interested in using it for copywriting or for the actual creative work.
I’m never going to be this predictive person in the sense of “I’m never” or “I will,” but right now, my clear stance on it is I do believe in exactly what you just said. I think that there is a credibility and a creative superpower and talent that is needed to create that relatability and in a brand positioning for consumers. I think if you allow AI to take all of that over — and even if they don’t take all of it over — if the integration is reckless, it really degrades that consumer experience. I don’t think it does the brand justice in what they’re trying to do to position themselves.
So I’m looking at the mundane; I’m looking at the 300 clicks. I’m looking at optimizing the movements within the work and speeding those up, and then repositioning the talented people that we have here. Because I feel like we have a killer employee base of hyper-talented people at Thesis, and [we’re] up-leveling that creative thinking to do the conceptual pieces that I don’t think AI should be replacing right now. I think this is why agencies exist. We’re a creative agency. This is what we need to be doing. We need to bring things and work into the world that no one else can do. That’s my goal. I’m standing firm on it right now.
But also, again, with so much change happening, I am always here to adapt and stay ahead of it, but I also don’t want to be overreactive to it either, and start forming plans further out that may or may not come to fruition. I think we just need to be smart in how we’re adapting to it, and I also think we need to protect the integrity of our work.
You talked about the political climate, and one of the things that’s happening right now is a lot of backlash against DEI initiatives, with some companies canceling their DEI programs. What is Thesis’ position on those initiatives?
We’re in it, we’re staying in it, and we’re not going to take our foot off the pedal at all. We’re going to stay true to our commitment. DEI is a cornerstone of who Thesis is, and I think it’s absolutely imperative. [We’ve made a] commitment to make sure that employees of all backgrounds have an opportunity to showcase their talent here, and to do so in a space where they’re welcome for exactly who they are. I think 2024 was our biggest investment year yet. I hope that signals our commitment, and that will continue forward. It will never be a journey that is over. I want to be clear about that, and it’s never going to be something that we hang our hat on or act as though we’ve got it. It’s going to be an ongoing journey, and we’re going to continue to navigate it. So the commitment remains steadfast.
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