Sasha Mackie.
Sasha Mackie, senior director, marketing at Warner Bros. Discovery ANZ
It’s now 2026 and marketing teams are getting smaller. Budgets are tightening, expectations are rising, and nothing creates pressure like launching a new brand into an already saturated market with big goals and no margin for error.
Last year, ten weeks out from launching HBO Max in Australia, I realised something. We could not deliver the scale, speed and craft required for this launch without a true Agency Village.
Not a list of vendors we briefed, but a village who behave like a genuine extension of the in-house team for the brand they work for, and who work together with a shared vision.
And yet, the difference between this village that elevates and celebrates a brand and one that doesn’t nail it, comes down to just one thing - the people, their behaviours and collective ambition.
Most marketers have experienced that one agency team who will walk through fire for one client but struggle to return a basic email from another. And it’s never the logo on the brief, it’s always the environment the client and the agency build together. When it works, the team produces some of its greatest work. When it doesn’t, even the simplest tasks can cause friction.
Before the HBO Max launch sprint kicked in fully, I pulled our Agency Village together for an offsite with Media, Creative, Social all in one room together. No-one had the time, but we all needed the clarity.
Agencies were still in that honeymoon period with us so the energy was good, but the overlap questions were already there: Who leads? Where are the boundaries?
That day set the tone.
Once we answered those questions collectively, everyone was focused in the lead up to the launch day. After launch, that same village then worked on, “What’s working, what’s not?” and made tweaks fast.
I realised the village needed a leader, not because the agencies weren’t equal partners, but because each campaign needed direction. We also needed the agencies to build relationships without us in the room. Social talking to Media about amplification. Creative talking to Media about ideas that could actually come to life.
Honest conversations without the client listening.
And that’s when the work accelerated. Every agency brought something extra, a smarter activation, a sharper idea, or a better use of the budget.
After experiencing the untold benefits of working this way, I absolutely cannot, and will not, work without a village of smart, collaborative agencies who operate as part of my team, not outsiders waiting for a siloed-brief.
They say it takes a village… and it really does. Our village ensured the launch of HBO Max in Australia was a huge success.
And as we head into 2026, it’s worth remembering building it intentionally wasn’t optional. It was the only way to succeed.