Coworking with Andrea Bendzick

Each week, we spotlight Marketing Brew readers in our Coworking series. If you’d like to be featured, introduce yourself here.

Andrea Bendzick is the CEO of the digital marketing agency Wpromote, which acquired Giant Spoon in December. She has also held senior roles at Astreya and NTT Data Americas, both IT services and consulting firms.

This interview has been condensed.

Favorite project you’ve worked on? Setting the vision for Wpromote. When I joined, I was completely new to marketing and I’d never worked in an agency, so my first few months were focused on listening: one-on-ones with the team, sitting in on client calls, and asking probably too many questions. I started talking to our media partners and peers about where I thought the industry needed to go. I expected pushback. I was new: Why would they take me seriously? But instead, they were almost relieved. They’d been so focused on optimizing what already existed that they couldn't see past it.

That’s when I realized being new wasn’t a liability. It was exactly why I could spot the gap. An industry gets comfortable with what works until clients start asking for something different. So what if we didn’t wait for clients to tell us something was wrong and demand a change? Instead, I wanted to show them this better path and get ahead of these challenges so they truly get the advantage in the market.

I worked with the teams at Wpromote to build out what this could actually look like. We tested it. Refined it. And then we made the call to lead toward it instead of waiting for someone else to figure it out first. That’s what led to our acquisition of Giant Spoon, as well as numerous other internal initiatives that are moving the ball forward, because we’re all working together toward the same goal.

What’s your favorite ad campaign? Procter & Gamble’s “Like a Girl” campaign is one of those rare pieces of work that just gets it right. It shows what happens when you lead with a core belief instead of trying to manufacture relevance. Simple, human, and empowering in a really genuine way. That campaign also really stood out to me because I’ve had my own “like a girl” moments. Early in my career, I’d get introduced as a “female executive” and it would catch me off guard every time—not because I wasn’t proud to be a woman in leadership, but because I’d never thought of my work through that lens. I was just focused on solving the problems in front of me, building something that mattered, and showing up prepared. That’s the power of work like “Like a Girl.” It reminds us that the best way forward is to stop qualifying people and just let the work speak.

One thing we can’t guess from your LinkedIn profile: I’m actually way more laidback than my LinkedIn would suggest. When I log off, I really log off. You’ll find me outside, visiting one of my daughters at college, or honestly just doing nothing particularly productive. Being present matters to me. Whether that’s in a client meeting or on a weekend hike, I want to actually be there, not half-distracted thinking about what’s next. It’s the same attention I try to bring as a leader. Showing up fully is showing up authentically, and that doesn’t change just because I’m not in work mode.

What marketing trend are you most optimistic about? Least? AI is an overused answer, I know, but it went from keynote fodder to something my kids use for fun in what felt like five minutes. AI is absorbing busywork at scale. Entry-level marketers can skip years of repetitive tasks and move faster into work that actually drives impact. Teams can focus on spotting patterns and identifying opportunities that help clients move ahead of competitors. Where I get cautious is when people seem to slide AI in to do the thinking for us. When decisions default to automation, we lose the judgment and humanity that create connection.

What’s one marketing-related podcast/social account/series you’d recommend? Some of the best inspiration can come from outside your own industry. One place where I find that is the podcast ReThinking with Adam Grant. He’s an organizational psychologist, and his guests show up for the art of conversation and debate, not to pitch their latest project. What I love about it is that it gets into the messy middle. We all celebrate the big wins, but the more interesting story is usually what happened before that moment. Grant’s curiosity about how people actually think and work feels genuine, and it pushes me to question my own assumptions about leadership and growth. It’s one of those shows where I’ll finish an episode and immediately want to talk to my team about what I just heard.