In the mid-2010s, while Uptown Funk was on the radio and everyone was talking about squad goals, Laura Tannenbaum was helping build one of the first social-first creative agencies in the world.
That Lot, co-founded with David Schneider (yes, that one), David Levin and David Beresford, pioneered an approach that put creativity and culture ahead of reach and spend. It grew to 150 people and was eventually acquired by Weber Shandwick and IPG. Laura then joined Fabric Social as CEO. In the year and a bit since, she has overseen growth of 300% year on year.
For context: 20% annual growth is considered very good for an agency. 40% is outstanding. We genuinely do not have a word for 300%.
We sat down with Laura to find out how she did it, where social is heading, and what she means by "jankiness".
Building the foundations for scale
Laura is refreshingly direct about what drove the growth at Fabric Social. The answer is not what most people expect.
"I know it sounds boring, but operations are everything," she says. "Fabric Social had amazing startup energy. Quick, scrappy, super fun. But if you're growing super quickly, that will not scale. It will break. Better processes and better visibility over the data points you need to make better decisions. That was the first priority."
The second was clarity about who the agency is and what it's actually for. "Being really clear about what we're trying to achieve, what the right client looks like, what we're in the business of. Getting those answers right creates alignment, speed and effectiveness."
The third thing Laura credits is momentum already in the business when she arrived. She didn't rip things up and start again. She backed what was working and built around it.
It is a simple formula: fix the infrastructure, sharpen the identity, back the momentum. But most agencies only do one of these at a time, if they do them at all.
Organic is not a nice-to-have. It is an acid test.
Laura's view on organic social is one of the most clarifying things we've heard on the subject.
The old model of social relied on budget. Paid spend could artificially amplify content whether audiences cared about it or not. That model is breaking down. Algorithms now reward content based on genuine engagement, not investment.
"The audiences are adjudicating in real time whether this is good content. Great organic content can go way beyond your followers and completely win." Laura Tannenbaum
This makes organic the most honest testing ground available. You see instantly what resonates: what language lands, what formats travel, what earns attention rather than demanding it. Then you put money behind what already works.
Laura has a phrase for the difference between a one-off viral hit and something that builds real brand value over time. "Flywheels, not fireworks." One creates compounding returns. The other looks great for a week.
The brands that win will be built on social
Laura's most forward-looking prediction is that social will stop being a channel and start being the engine of the brand. The businesses that understand this earliest will build their brand identity, their community, and their mental availability almost entirely through social.
"If organic is where attention is earned, it's also where brands are built," she says. "It's about building community, testing your messaging, and creating mental availability. Making your brand the first one that comes to mind when someone is ready to buy."
The challenge is measurement. The ROI of social brand-building looks very different from above-the-line attribution modelling. It is about resonance, about how people feel about a brand. That is harder to quantify. But that difficulty does not make it less real.
Jankiness is winning
This is the word we had not encountered until we spoke with Laura. Jankiness refers to the rough-cut, lo-fi aesthetic that is now outperforming polished, highly produced content across TikTok and YouTube. It is a rejection both of the millennial-pink Instagram perfection of the 2010s and the increasingly smooth, inhuman quality of AI-generated content.
"We have amazing designers," Laura says, "but I think we have entered an era where people don't want that polished perfection in social. It's a tension, because classic marketers care a lot about how their brand comes to life. But the true social brains say: it needs to feel really human."
Imperfections signal authenticity. Quick edits, off-the-cuff captions, a slightly rough finish. These tell an audience that a real person made this. And right now, people are hungry for that. It creates trust in a way that perfectly produced content simply cannot.
GOOD CEOs is a newsletter, podcast and events series from UNKNOWN, the talent growth consultancy. To hear the full conversation with Laura, head to our podcast on Spotify or YouTube.
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