Former VML and Accenture Song alums launch Tango & Cache to reboot the agency model

Tango & Cache is reimagining the agency model for the AI era. Founded by three former VML department heads Craig Page, Ross Weythman and Rhys Turner and former Accenture Song AI specialist Patrick Rabier, the new agency-meets-platform rewires the traditional agency workflow into a scalable OS by training AI on a mix of brand strategy, creative psychology and their own experience.

“The ad industry doesn’t need another agency,” says Craig Page, co-founder and Chief Strategist of Tango & Cache. “It needs a way to rapidly evolve without losing the human touch that makes work great.”

That’s the idea behind Tango & Cache. The result is a streamlined process that lets teams focus on creativity and craft. For now, they’re making campaign-ready work through their proprietary OS, Cache, but the vision is to put Cache directly in the hands of other creative teams, whether in-house or agency-side.

“Traditional agencies using AI to speed up the same old process is the classic Henry-Fordian ‘faster horse’ problem,” says co-founder and Head of AI Solutions Patrick Rabier. “Cache allows us to reconsider the conventional agency workflow without the usual constraints of the traditional linear system. We’re focused on modeling useful patterns that make the work better, not just pushing out faster output.”

“It’s what most of the big holding companies are trying to figure out right now,” adds co-founder and Creative Technology Director Rhys Turner, “but because we don’t have the revenue to protect, or shareholders to appease, we can do it with more agility and transparency.”

That’s where Tango & Cache sees its opening. Cache is a proprietary creative operating system shaped by the founders’ years of creative, strategic and technological experience, designed to take on the parts of the agency process AI can do well, so creative teams can spend more time on the things humans do best. This balance of instinct and iteration is core to the team’s philosophy.

“Cache is everything we’ve learned, uploaded and over-caffeinated. It allows us to concentrate on making the creative as effective and memorable as possible,” says co-founder and ECD Ross Weythman. “It’s important to us that Cache isn’t fully automated, but more like a brand-savvy GPS we want other creative teams to be able to drive with.”

Adds Page: “At the end of the day, the best clients, like all of us, still value human assurance, originality and accountability. Computers have been flying planes for years, but we still want humans in the cockpit.”

The founders know the new model’s potential because they’ve lived the old one. Page, Weythman and Turner previously worked together at VML Sydney, where they led their respective departments in Strategy, Creative, and Creative Technology, whilst former Accenture engineer and AI specialist Rabier, previously worked with Turner at Chanel. Collectively, the founding team’s careers have spanned Sydney, New York, London, Dubai and Hong Kong, producing award-winning work for a global roster of brands and organisations including Nike, Google, Wendy’s and a U.S. presidential campaign.

And the name? “Craig first said Tango & Cache as a joke and it just kind of stuck,” says Weythman. “The buddy cop metaphor felt right: brand veterans training a rookie robot partner with savant-like abilities. And it hits our preferred level of absurdity.”

The team are currently working with select early-stage clients to refine the model in real time.

“We’re inviting a few early partners behind the curtain to help shape a smarter, more efficient way to build great brands while skipping the usual agency overhead costs,” says Page. “If you’ve got a real brief and want to try working a little differently, we’d love to chat.”

For more information, visit tangoandcache.com or email hello@tangoandcache.com.

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