Austin, Texas-based ad agency Greatest Common Factory (GCF), is relaunching with new leadership and a pivot away from AOR relationships to serve primarily as a creative and strategy resource for in-house agencies and brand managers. 

The pivot follows the untimely death late last year of agency founder John Trahar. It also comes as many agencies are rethinking go-to-market and compensation setups as AOR relationships, and FTE pay models are coming under increasing pressure to demonstrate improved ROI in the age of AI.  

The agency just promoted Melisa Smith to the post of CEO. She has been running the agency since Trahar became ill over a year ago. She joined in 2012 as Chief Financial Officer. 

Smith hired Courtney Tsitouris as Chief Creative Officer in February with a mandate to reposition the agency’s market approach and oversee the retooling of its tech stack.  

With the new positioning, GCF will prioritize products and “sprints,” developing insight, positioning, content and AI post-production. “We’re not living in an AOR world, so we want to earn projects and trust repeatedly,” says Smith. “Everything we do serves speed and quality.” 

Tsitouris brought learnings from her previous work to inform GFC’s new approach. She collaborated with P&G’s in-house agency Content House (CoHo) on projects for Olay, Secret and Gillette.  

"Internal teams don't need another agency trying to own the business,” said Will Adam, executive creative director, CoHo. “They need experienced partners who can plug in immediately, strengthen the thinking, and help shoulder the load when every brief lands at once. That's exactly how Courtney has always worked." 

And it’s the approach she has brought to GCF. One example: Earlier this year the agency assisted The Venetian in Las Vegas with a strategic reposition to shift marketing focus from gaming-centric ads to highlighting the resort's high-end dining and entertainment offerings. The work focused heavily on analyzing customer journeys to increase booking conversions. 

It also worked with an Austin mixed-use facility, creating the name—Domain Northside—identity, messaging and more to transform the development into a cohesive destination brand that unites shopping, dining, entertainment, and experiences under a single vision. 

The AI product underpinning the agency’s work is called Afterburn.AI, which uses openly available tools to enable users to create proprietary capabilities. Among those created by GCF is the ability to do a single shoot to generate content and months of potential modifications based on different seasons, environments and more, reducing the need for costly reshoots.  

“We work with internal teams to find and develop the one insight that changes everything,” said Tsitouris. “And we do it fast, through finite engagements that yield tangible impact on clients’ essential business drivers. It’s our way of redefining what an agency can be.”