Interview with Kaspars Eglitis, Chief Creative Officer & Partner at TBWA Latvia, is conducted by Hando Sinisalu.
How is the business confidence in the Latvian advertising sector in the Summer of 2025?
Well, I can only really speak for our agency. But from what I’ve seen and heard, the last year – especially the last quarter – was pretty dark here too. Everyone finally felt the impact of inflation. Even some of our big clients postponed or outright canceled campaigns, and we definitely felt that at the agency.
We’ve always had an internal rule that in such situations, we invest instead of cutting. The same thing happened during COVID – we let go of just one person and kept the rest, investing everything we could into the agency.
How many people are on your team?
Right now we’re 26. During COVID, I think we were around 20, maybe 19.
The first quarter of 2025 felt like we were climbing back to some kind of normal. Right now, summer feels like a calm period where everyone is preparing for autumn. We’ll see.
Every business needs to grow, at least theoretically. Where do you see the growth potential for your business?
We’ve always believed in investing in new talent and creating new roles. One of our biggest moves is building an internal film production team – we never had one before. It helps us stay closer to the clients and generate more revenue.
The other major area is, of course, digital. In three or four years – or maybe even less – I think half the agency will be digital. Clients are increasingly willing to invest more in digital, and as an ATL agency, we bring strategic depth, strong research, and a fresh approach to that space.
We’re not trying to become a fully digital agency, but we are growing those capabilities. Plus, there’s AI and other innovations that we’re working on.
If someone unfamiliar with the advertising business looks at the business results of agencies, they might see a typical Baltic agency with 20 to 40 people, an annual turnover of around 5 million. Why do you think we see so many small agencies, and why don’t we see more consolidation across media, digital, PR, and advertising into larger communications firms?
Probably because of market size. That’s the main reason, in my opinion. But I agree – it might make more sense to consolidate. Right now, we have a lot of small companies fiercely competing for a limited amount of money.
I think a big part of it is that the barrier to entry is low. Anyone can basically start an agency. And globally, we’re seeing a trend where big chain agencies are losing ground while small independents are gaining.
It wasn’t like this 17 years ago when I started – back then it was all TBWA, DDB, Omnicom Group, McCann. Now, it’s a different world. We’re still TBWA, but we’re an affiliate – 100% locally owned. Our affiliate headquarters is in the Netherlands. Here, we still have McCann, but DDB has left the network.
So what value do you still see in carrying the TBWA name?
Global clients. For instance, we serve McDonald’s across the Baltics, which is huge. We also work with Philips and other global project clients.
But it’s also about knowledge sharing. We use a lot of network-specific tools – like the Disruption tool unique to TBWA – and even our own integrated AI tool. We can pull in global strategists for big projects and tap into expertise across the network. It makes our team stronger.
Some have said that in theory, that’s valuable, but in practice the fees outweigh the benefits. That’s why many have left.
For us, it definitely pays off. I think it depends on the network and on the global client portfolio. If you’re working with a client like McDonald’s, it’s very closely tied to the network – you have to be part of it.
And our team benefits a lot from working with top talents from France, the US, and elsewhere.
What about using freelancers and global talent? A few years ago there were more foreigners in the Baltic ad scene. Now, not so much. What’s your experience?
We used to have a small team in Ukraine before the war. After that, the team no longer existed.
We’ve tried hiring from abroad, but it’s difficult when someone doesn’t understand the local mentality. You can bring in someone from Italy, for example, but our way of thinking and working can be quite different. It just doesn’t always click.
We do use local freelancers, as most agencies do. But we have an internal rule: keep the team stable for each client. Big clients need consistency. You can’t just plug in a new artist who doesn’t know the guidelines. So we try to stick with our internal team as much as possible.
But isn’t it more efficient to work with a small core team and use trusted freelancers?
Our internal system is built for efficiency – which isn’t typical for advertising. We work from 9 to 6, and every hour is tracked and planned, especially for the artists.
It’s hard to plan that tightly with freelancers. You can only really plan costs, not hours. But in our model, we need to ensure the client is paying for exactly what’s being delivered. That’s tough to maintain with external freelancers.
That level of discipline is rare in creative businesses.
That’s why we use automated tools – like Scoro, which I think is Estonian. It’s brilliant. You can see the hours at a glance.
When I joined TBWA eight years ago, I came from the BTL agency Abnormal and before that McCann. It was a completely different world. The work got done, but burnout was everywhere. People left the industry.
Here, the average person stays five, six, even 15 or 20 years. Internal turnover is low because we combine high performance with high maintenance.
It seems like almost everyone in Latvian advertising has worked at McCann or DDB at some point.
Probably both size and legacy. I was one of the founders of an agency called Fuse under Omnicom Group for sponsorship and guerrilla marketing, and we worked with DDB.
But those were different times. No family, working until 1 or 2 a.m., even all night. Times have changed – especially post-COVID. You have to be mindful of how employees feel.
And Gen Z? They think of working hours very differently. Some want to work just three days a week. You have to adapt.
Gen Z might say, “I work in an agency,” not “I am a copywriter.”
You mentioned investing in production. In Estonia, one of the most successful agencies is an event agency. Do you see that as a major growth area?
I’m not sure it will dominate for us. I see more potential in filming and digital. I’ve worked in event agencies before, and the team setup is entirely different.
Our efficiency model doesn’t suit the chaotic nature of events. So, it’s about finding the right balance.
What clients value is having one contact point who can connect them to various services – without needing five separate agencies.
Let’s talk AI. Can you give a practical example of how you used it yesterday?
AI is everywhere, and we’re on board. But we actually started our AI journey seven years ago. Back then, it wasn’t on every agency’s radar.
Our first AI-powered campaign was for Riga International Airport – a symphony composed by airplane motions. It won awards in the “creative data” category back then.
When ChatGPT launched, we took it seriously. We asked ourselves: what can we offer that our clients’ marketing teams can’t just do themselves? So we trained our whole team in prompting and hired a “robot trainer.” His job is to find the best AI tools for our artists and creatives.
There are thousands of tools out there. His job is to match the right one to each person’s skills – especially those who’ve worked with tools like Photoshop and now need to generate photo-realistic images, for example.
Because not every AI tool does everything. You need a mix, even for simple visual work.
Exactly. Some creatives need video tools, others need visual generators. And subscriptions can cost thousands. Our robot trainer helps streamline and make it cost-efficient.
We still use our network’s internal AI tool, but we supplement with other tools too – depending on the project.
What jobs do you think AI will eliminate first?
The ones where tasks can be fully handed to ChatGPT. If a copywriter’s only skill is giving prompts, they’ll be replaced. It’s only a matter of time.
Small-scale programmers and junior visual designers might also be at risk. Mostly entry-level jobs.
So if you’re truly great at something, you’re safe?
Yes. For example, AI won’t replace a creative director. People are emotional and illogical – weird, even.
AI couldn’t come up with something like hobby-horsing. Try prompting a visual tool to create a hobby-horsing competition. It errors out. That kind of weirdness is what makes us irreplaceable.
So crazy people are more needed?
Exactly. Most people, seen through the lens of AI, are weird. We act emotionally. That’s what we need to preserve.
Let’s end with Latvia. If someone from Germany or Estonia wanted to win Latvian hearts, how would they do it?
We love winning – anything that gives us national pride, like the Oscars or a major sports victory. We’re also an introverted society, so if you can make us smile or laugh, that’s powerful.
And we love singing—our song and dance festivals are a big deal. Tap into that, and you’ll win our hearts.
Are there any major local consumer brands launched recently – like a new beer or snack?
Honestly, nothing comes to mind. Maybe that’s a concern. It could be the small market, or global uncertainty. Investors are cautious and focus on short-term gains.
Also, maybe the era of mass-market brands is over. Everything is niche now. If you’re not the target, you might not even know the brand exists.
BalticBest 2025
You can find rules HERE.
Submission deadline: 08.08.2025 – Extended until 12.08.2025 at 5 PM Estonian time
Shortlist published: 19.08.2025
Live judging and awards announced: 27.08.2025
