Manifest and Aisle Rocket Merge

An Integrated Agency Built to Break Through

Didi Gluck, vp, editorial director, Manifest

There’s a persistent belief in marketing that the idea is the hard part, and that everything after it is just execution. Get the concept right and the rest will follow. But as a content and digital agency that’s worked with hundreds of clients, we’ve seen time and again that the top causes of delays and inflated budgets generally have nothing to do with the creative. They’re about things like the approval chain, misalignment, and asset management. Operational failures … every one of them.

According to a recent survey that ran in AdWeek, 98% of campaigns launch late and 70% exceed their production budgets. Yet most marketing organizations invest enormous energy developing their creative capabilities and almost none developing their operational ones. If this sounds like your organization, it’s likely costing you more than you realize.

The new competitive advantage in marketing isn’t just a distinct creative campaign. It needs to be paired with the operational infrastructure that gives a great idea a fighting chance.

Here’s what that looks like in practice, from Manifest’s project managers who thrive in the operational trenches every day.

Alignment is an ongoing discipline

Misalignment rarely happens at kickoff. It usually happens three weeks later, when someone makes a small call without realizing it changes something else and by then, the damage can be hard to undo.

“Most project failures are caused by misalignment, which compounds over time,” says Marissa Thompson, an account operations director at Manifest. A subject-matter expert brought in for one narrow decision, for instance, unintentionally steering the whole workstream off course weeks later.

The key is to confirm direction at every major inflection point, not just the beginning, asking whether the work still matches the brief, whether priorities have shifted, and whether anyone has an unvoiced concern. This process is baked into how we operate with every client.

Go back to your brief

Contrary to popular opinion, a brief doesn’t always have to be a formal document, it can live in a kickoff call, a project plan, or sometimes, a strategic, shared slide deck. “The format of the brief can be flexible,” Thompson says. “But the objective shouldn’t be.”

What must always be concrete is a mutually agreed-upon path forward. At Manifest, great work starts with a clear picture: what we’re making, why it matters, who we’re talking to, how we’ll know it worked, and the time and resources we’ll have to get there. Without these non-negotiables, even small deviations can send a project off course in ways that aren’t obvious until real harm has been done.

Create conditions for good work

Related to having a clear objective is having a well-defined way of working so you can bring your deliverables to life. Every marketer has been on a project where the work was good but the execution was chaotic. Things got lost. People didn’t know what they were supposed to do or when. That’s not the path to success. Getting the who, when, and where established at the start of every project creates the conditions for your team to do good work, says Emma Hecht, a project manager at Manifest. That means establishing who’s doing the work, how long they need, and where the resources live, so the team can stop guessing and start producing.

Edit your approval chain

Mapping the approval chain early provides protection from people chiming in at the wrong moments and causing unnecessary revision cycles, says Abisola Alade, a project manager at Manifest. And once a stakeholder has made a decision, it should be written down in a place everyone can find it. Nick Prayner, a project manager at Manifest, calls this decision logging. In a long project, that record is the difference between moving forward confidently and spending a meeting relitigating something that was settled three weeks ago.

Define done

“‘Done’ can be an expensive word if everyone on a project is picturing a different finish line,” says Eric Kanerva, a senior project manager at Manifest. That finish line needs to be the same for everyone on the project. Does done mean the assets are delivered? That the campaign is live? That the results are in? Defining done for each deliverable at the start of a project, not the end, eliminates a category of disagreement that reliably surfaces at the worst possible moment, when everyone’s tired and ready to move on.

Take temperature checks

Marketing is a high-pressure, deadline-driven, subjective business. When people don’t feel safe raising problems, they don’t raise them and errors that can cost time and money can happen. Regular live check-ins, along with the occasional unscheduled Slack message, turn potential crises into small talk—so they don’t end up needing crisis control.

Amid AI disruption and holding company consolidation, Manifest emerges as a strategically adaptive agency for growth-focused marketers

CHICAGO – October 23, 2025

Following the March 2024 acquisition of Manifest by Aisle Rocket (ARS Advertising) the firms have merged under a single, unified brand: Manifest. Together, they’ve built an agency engineered for agility and growth, with a distinctive focus on the middle journey.

The combined agency remains fiercely independent and more competitive than ever, ready to fill the strategic and creative void left as holding company consolidation accelerates and brands seek partners built for agility, accountability, and long-term growth. 

“Growth stalls in the messy middle — unless you know how to unlock it”, said Melissa Bouma, Partner and Chief Growth Officer. “The gap between brand and performance is only getting wider. By designing a multichannel approach that’s built from the middle out, we find that everything is more effective, top to bottom. We help brands turn consideration into preference and create results that ripple throughout the full funnel.”

The new Manifest blends two deeply complementary strengths: Manifest’s deep-rooted expertise in content strategy, brand journalism, and complex B2B storytelling with Aisle Rocket’s strong capabilities in digital experience, marketing technology, and brand and product creative; while integrating the strong performance capabilities of both teams.

“Our approach is shaped by the reality of today’s complex consumer journey with the belief that solving for the middle can make a lasting impact, ” said Steve Slivka, Partner, Chief Experience Officer. “We have consistently seen an outage between great ideas and driving conversion. So, we’ve been connecting those through content and experiences that link brand purpose with customer needs and ultimately, inspire action.”

Leadership That Balances Scale, Creativity, and Capital

The agency will be led by:

Ross Shelleman, Chief Executive Officer
Steve Slivka, Chief Experience Officer, Partner
Melissa Bouma, Chief Growth Officer, Partner

“There is constant conflict inside board rooms stemming from an addiction to performance media that has led to less investment in brand and the nurturing of customers. The questions being asked by non-marketing executives are often binary and discount the middle. The middle is where most consumer engagement happens and is where the most successful brands will drive education, trial, and trust,” said Shelleman, Chief Executive Officer.

As global ad spend climbs past $1 trillion and marketers shift from siloed services to integrated brand ecosystems, Manifest is positioned to lead. With momentum from clients like Whirlpool Corporation, Fiserv, CDW, and Primrose Schools, a strong 2025 pipeline, and a bold new brand platform on the horizon, the agency is already gaining traction in an increasingly competitive market.

Whether helping legacy brands modernize or fast-growth companies scale smartly, Manifest is focused on delivering results that resonate – and stick.

About Manifest

Manifest is an independent, full-service agency built to solve the hardest part of the customer journey — the middle. Formed through the merger of Manifest and Aisle Rocket, the agency bridges the gap between brand and performance to help clients turn consideration into preference and drive results that ripple across the full funnel. With deep expertise in content strategy, brand journalism, creative, digital experience, and marketing technology, Manifest delivers integrated solutions that move consumers and markets. Clients include Whirlpool Corporation, Fiserv, CDW, and Primrose Schools.

PRESS CONTACT:
Jocelyn Weiss
jocelyn.weiss@digennaro-usa.com

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