Coworking with Charlie Tetrick

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

Charlie Tetrick is president and CEO of WTA, a Kansas City-based advertising agency.

How would you describe your job to someone who doesn’t work in marketing? I’ve run a 140-person advertising agency for the past 30+ years. Lately, our role has gone beyond crafting ad campaigns to finding business solutions for brands that create measurable change and even operational transformation. My role also involves building the agency’s image, ensuring that our reputation remains strong through our client work, community involvement, and development of our employees. The culture that we build at WTA shapes how the market sees us.

Favorite project you’ve worked on? I am excited about the FIFA World Cup coming to Kansas City, for which WTA created a podcast called Heart & Goal, along with dozens of videos that have been used to promote the event. The Heart & Goal podcast team includes players with MLS and National Team experience to fuel engagement, expand reach, and give audiences greater insights into the World Cup games. Produced entirely in-house, we feature guests such as Pam Kramer, CEO of KC2026, to highlight the city’s efforts to make us the best World Cup host city ever. We bring a deep background in sports to this moment, including projects with teams like the Kansas City Royals and in NIL, helping brands forge winning partnerships with the right athletic talent, most recently between rising star college athletes at KU and Adidas.

I am also involved with a larger community effort to engage the World Cup platform to elevate Kansas City globally. We don’t want it to just come and go. We want people to really see what’s here.

One thing we can’t guess from your LinkedIn profile: I have a longtime love for collecting and appreciating vintage cars. To me, it’s a hobby that is inherently creative due to its roots in great design, craftsmanship, and nostalgia.

What marketing trend are you most optimistic about? Least? One trend that’s interesting to me is that I’m seeing almost a rejection of the traditional agency generalist model. Clients don’t just want smart thinking—they want informed thinking. If you don’t do significant homework and have the data to show for it, brands have trouble jumping on board an idea or plan. I’m optimistic about this trend, as we recently launched an AI-powered business intelligence division at WTA called Fuel Labs to get in front of the science of keeping ourselves and our clients informed.

Conversely, the trend of agency folks thinking of themselves as “makers”—primarily making things for brands—is something I think is a bit outdated. I have been repositioning our agency mindset away from just “making things” and toward actually driving results. We don’t just make stuff here; it’s about moving things forward. That reframes the role of an agency.

What’s one marketing-related podcast/social account/series you’d recommend? I was a guest on The Ad Podcast recently. They talk a lot about how people get started in their advertising careers and what goes into building success—it’s worth a listen.