Agency Business #48: Independent at scale: the Tombras playbook with Dooley Tombras
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Nov 24, 2025 Dooley Tombras, President of the family-owned Tombras agency, shares insights on navigating the advertising landscape. He highlights the importance of independence in fostering long-term investments in AI and first-party data. Dooley discusses their unique hub-and-spoke staffing model that balances talent across locations like Knoxville and Buenos Aires, while maintaining cultural stability. He emphasizes how industry consolidation is attracting top talent to independent agencies, positioning them as competitive players in a shifting market.
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Overinvest In AI And First-Party Data
- Invest aggressively in data and AI even if it temporarily reduces margins.
- Sacrifice short-term margin to build first-party data and AI capabilities that drive long-term client value.
Worldview + First-Party Data As AI Moat
- The competitive edge in an AI era will be encoding your agency worldview into models and leveraging client first-party data.
- Dooley thinks training LLMs on proprietary client data (RAG) will separate agencies with better business outcomes.
Fix Tech Gaps With Focused Energy
- If a pitch feedback says you're behind on tech, treat it as the highest-leverage area to fix fast.
- Find the greatest point of leverage and apply concentrated financial and human energy to close gaps.