May, 2025.- As the CEO of Hogarth Worldwide, Richard Glasson is leading the charge into a new era of creative production—one where speed, scale, and personalization meet ethical innovation, deep cultural fluency, and creative craft. In this exclusive Q&A, Glasson shares his vision for the future of content, artificial intelligence, and global collaboration, using his exact words to outline what lies ahead for brands and agencies alike.
Balancing Scale with Craft in the Content Economy
In an era where content needs to be produced faster and at greater volume, how is Hogarth balancing the demand for scale with the need for high-quality creative craft?
“There’s no substitute for craft, and our promise has always been that we would never compromise on quality. We don’t see emerging technologies as obstacles to great craft. They enable the best work to be made for every channel, every moment and every audience.
We love the possibilities that new tools and platforms bring to our offer and the opportunities they create to make our clients’ work shine. I don’t think it’s a balancing act at all: it’s about using the power of technology to supercharge the craft which will always be at the heart of great work.
Hogarth has always been a force for disruption in the production industry, and we have a mantra that there is ‘always a better way of doing things’. So we see the need for ever greater amounts of content as nothing but positive, and will embrace new ways of bringing our creative craft to the world.”
The Generative AI Revolution
How do you see generative AI reshaping the future of creative production, and what is Hogarth’s approach to integrating it responsibly and ethically?
“Generative AI is clearly going to change the way that a huge amount of content is created. No-one who has seen what Google’s Veo3 has done for video can be in denial any longer: this is transformative technology which unleashes a whole new world of creative possibility.
Coupled with the power of AI in ideation, copy generation and analytics, we are truly in the foothills of the next content revolution.
Which means we are also in the relatively early stages of working with our clients, partners and colleagues in WPP to navigate all of the ethical considerations.
My experience is that our clients are aware of the potential challenges and taking a very measured approach to the adoption of AI.
The state of the art of the technology is far beyond where most clients are prepared to go in terms of implementation, which is the right way round.
We need to think about the effect of AI on screen talent, we have to consider the implications for bias in the models and we have to think about brand safety and protecting the IP of creators.
There’s a lot here: but the good news is that major clients are well-informed and very willing to engage with the debate.
They want to work in a way that is safe and compliant, and I don’t feel any pressure from anyone to push the boundaries in terms of what we at Hogarth would consider to be ethically appropriate.”
Post-Pandemic Expectations and Production Models
Post-pandemic, how have client expectations around content creation evolved—and what challenges or opportunities has this presented for global brands?
“Covid, and the associated lockdowns all around the world, forced all of us to think differently. It acted as a catalyst for necessary change.
Virtual production was established technology pre-pandemic, but not widely adopted in the industry until circumstances provoked its use.
There are many other similar examples of how Covid drove the use of existing but under-utilized technology (QR codes, anyone?!)
But structurally perhaps the biggest change was the realization that we all had all of the tools we needed to work as a single connected team, regardless of geography.
Hogarth has the benefit of only being 15 years old and never having built up global structures which legislate against cross-regional collaboration.
What changed was the sense that our clients wanted us to activate the best talent wherever in the world those people happened to be – and structure charts could be created based around expertise more than location.
This meant we could develop genuine scaled centres of excellence that can deliver the best work to our global clients with the greatest speed and efficiency.
I am not sure the pandemic changed the direction of travel, but it definitely acted as an accelerant.”
Governance and Responsibility in the AI Age
What governance frameworks do you believe are essential when it comes to adopting GenAI tools in creative production?
“We need to think beyond just Generative AI when considering governance frameworks, because we also use AI for automation of key stages in the production workflow and for real-time insight and optimization.
Even within the Generative AI sphere it’s copy as well as images and films. This is a pervasive technology which needs to be deeply understood and implemented in a considered and informed way.
Governments have been slow and inconsistent in their approaches to AI governance, and the AI version of GDPR doesn’t exist.
Regulatory frameworks are on a spectrum between completely laissez-faire and highly restrictive – and different countries will take varying approaches to specific tools. Which is to say that’s it’s complicated!
The result of all of this is that agencies and clients need to have an open dialogue, to set their own parameters for compliance and risk, and act in a way that could be transparently explained to a reasonable audience.
In the likely continued absence of meaningful and consistent legislative guardrails it’s incumbent on us all to both follow the laws and regulations of every market we operate in, but also to go further by having an agreed ethical and philosophical approach that is clear and fair.”
Global Relevance and Cultural Nuance
With campaigns increasingly needing global relevance and cultural nuance, how is Hogarth ensuring content resonates across diverse markets?
“Work which resonates in culture – every culture – is critically important, and always has been.
Hogarth’s founding idea was to bring together the best craft across all media, combine that with a deep language and cultural expertise and use leading technology to enable new operating models.
That’s always been what drives us and in a sense nothing has changed.
What has changed, as previously discussed, is the sheer number of channels, audiences and contextual cues. Which creates the need not only for local relevance, but also an understanding of who is engaging with content on which platform at which moment.
So now cultural understanding goes way beyond countries and markets, and moves to an almost individual level.
Not individual in the sense of knowing someone’s name, age and email address – but something much more nuanced and engaging.
This is where art and science combine, and where our years of creating content for every possible audience in every market, and our tight integration with creative and media partners in WPP means we have extraordinary insight into what works and why and can bring performance advantage to our clients.”
Looking Ahead to 2025
Looking ahead to 2025, what trends do you think will most significantly shape how brands approach creative production on a global scale?
“Did I mention AI?! Of course that will be at the centre of many conversations and will drive massive change. That’s clear, and very well documented and understood.
But we should also think about some of the incredible advances in VFX and asset pipelines, which are already unlocking real opportunities for clients to have a single approach to high-end asset creation across all of their customer touchpoints – moving beyond advertising into commerce, ownership experience and owned platforms.
At the same time I don’t think we should ignore some of the more organizational and strategic changes which will be triggered by the pace of innovation.
Agentic workflows will fundamentally disrupt operating models – bringing humans and agents together in high-performing teams.
In-house studios may struggle to evolve quickly enough, and will definitely be constrained in terms of the levels of technology investment required to stay at the forefront.
So whilst in-house content production will always play an important role in the client ecosystem, I think we’ll see much more partnership, more sharing of platforms and a unified data strategy between clients and partners.
WPP Open has already transformed the way that end-to-end integration works across creative ideation, activation, commerce, social and media and is driving real results for WPP’s clients.
And as we bring more clients onto the AI-powered platform we’ll be creating entirely new ways of collaborating that will lead to better, higher performing work.
It’s an exciting time to be in the industry, that’s for sure.”From accelerating production through AI to maintaining craft and cultural depth, Richard Glasson paints a future where technology doesn’t replace creativity—it enhances it. As Hogarth continues to reimagine how content is made, delivered, and experienced, Glasson’s leadership is helping the industry move forward with both ambition and responsibility.
