Razorfish is one of those names that still carries a faint electric charge. Anyone who lived through the early digital era remembers the mythology. The swagger. The sense that Razorfish was wired a little differently, built to see the world two beats before everyone else. Which is why the past two years inside Publicis have felt so jarring. The U. S. cuts hit Razorfish harder than any of its peers, and the slow bleed of senior talent left rooms quieter than anyone wanted to admit. The agency that once helped define modern digital suddenly felt like it was being measured for a smaller future.

Then came the moment Publicis does better than almost any holding company: the coded language. Conversations about rationalizing the footprint. About reducing duplication. About optimizing the U. S. digital experience layer. The kind of phrasing you use when you intend to make a decision without announcing one.

And into this atmosphere walked someone who actually knew the building.

When we asked Dani what had driven Razorfish’s recent momentum, she did not default to revenue decks or transformation jargon. She went straight to the human core the agency had been losing.

She described how “our focus on our people and building a high-performance culture has been a priority for me since taking on the President role at the start of 2023, and that focus continues now for me as CEO.”

In a period defined by layoffs and holding-company calculus, she pointed at something that cannot be measured on a spreadsheet. Values, she said, only matter when they are actionable. As she put it, “A company’s values can’t just be posters on a wall; they need deeper meaning.”

And in her framing, that meaning emerges when a team arrives each day not in fear of restructuring but in pursuit of something they can be proud of. She explained it as a mission to inspire teams to reach new personal bests, which sounds almost sentimental until you remember the corporate weather they have been standing in.

Her view of momentum rests on discipline rooted in time. She told us that Razorfish’s strategy depends on “a disciplined approach to business priorities that are built to last years, not months.” In her mind, evolution is constant, but the ambition is steady. They must, she said, “be consistently and constantly evolving what we do best, while being ready to break through in new areas when opportunity calls or the market signals.”

This is not someone tending a brand in decline. This is someone rebuilding its muscles.

And when she described how Razorfish engages clients, she framed the agency’s value in the stark reality of a chaotic marketing world. Results, she said, are expected. But in a moment like this, clients need something more. They need an interpreter. “They need a partner that can make sense of the mess, organize a plan of attack, and execute solutions.” Trust is not transactional. “Fostering that trust happens through long-term commitment to helping them reach their vision and goals.”

All of this, she said, is shaping “a reinvention of The Razorfish Way.”

The industry has spent years speculating about Razorfish’s identity inside Publicis. Is it the innovation shop. The digital brand builder. The odd man out between Digitas and Sapient. Dani did not hedge.

She reminded us that the agency has been recognized repeatedly, noting how Razorfish has been “known for innovation, being recognized by Campaign US in 2024 and 2025 as a Most Innovative Agency.”

Then she defined Razorfish’s precise function inside Publicis Connected Media.
Her language was clinical, confident, and unmistakable.

Razorfish’s role is “to be a premier connected agency.”

And what does connected mean. It means Razorfish carries the rare combination of media, creative, content, commerce, and CRM in one integrated frame. As she put it, “We have the unique ability to bring an end-to-end service to our clients.”

She was equally explicit that Razorfish is not operating alone. Its integration with the broader network is a feature, not a vulnerability. As she described it, being part of Power of One teams simply creates more opportunities to collaborate and strengthens the agency’s ability to drive business results across Publicis.

Across the industry, people wonder whether Razorfish still has a defensible position. Dani answered that question by reframing the premise entirely.
Razorfish’s value is not siloed. It is connective.

Her insistence on preparing clients for Gen Alpha is not theoretical. It is strategic urgency. She laid out the stakes plainly. “The oldest are turning 16 next year and will have incredible spending power, but our research shows they’re already influencing nearly half of household purchasing decisions.”

This is not about marketing to kids. It is about preventing brands from repeating their Gen Z mistakes. “We don’t want our clients to make that mistake of underestimating and alienating them.”

Razorfish has been running seminars, advisory days, and even partnered with Google on a financial services summit to help clients understand how Gen Alpha evaluates banks, digital payment platforms, luxury goods, and financial behavior. As she told us, the goal is “getting Gen Alpha on their radars so they can start preparing now.”

And then there is the Creator Colab, Razorfish’s internal creator team that functions as a rapid-response engine for the kind of cultural moments brands usually miss. Her explanation was simple and sharp. Clients needed teams that move fast but deliver polish. The Colab solved that tension by embedding creators inside the agency itself, giving Razorfish the ability to produce content quickly without sacrificing brand alignment or quality.

In a market drowning in messy, rushed creator output, that matters more than most agencies admit.

When asked how Razorfish held its internal center while the external environment tilted, she credited transparency and an unwavering focus on people and clients. “We have a unique culture of transparency with our people.”
Dialogue stays open.
Questions are answered directly.
And opportunities for growth are created intentionally.

On the client side, she reduced the agency mission to something astonishingly clear. “In the service business, we really have one job. To make our clients successful.”
When that becomes the organizing principle, she said, every other decision becomes easier.

Dani is adamant that the agency’s future depends on who it hires and how they think. Razorfish’s next chapter begins with “the best talent in the industry who embody an innovative, curious mindset and a desire to achieve excellence.”

From there, she argued, the work becomes about understanding people not as data sets but as emotional beings. “It all starts with deeply understanding audiences, not just through facts and figures, but through emotions.” What they talk about. What they listen to. What shapes their decisions. The future, as she described it, is in delivering connected experiences across media, CRM, creative, social, and content.

And she closed the loop by reminding us that Gen Alpha’s expectations will not be optional. Delivering seamless, end-to-end experiences, she said, will be the demand of the emerging cohorts shaping the next decade.

These are Dani’s words.
Her vision.
Her frame for the agency’s evolution.

The rest of the story lives behind the paywall.
The internal concerns.
The structural tension with Sapient and Digitas.
The talent math.
The investors reading tea leaves.
The clients watching the ground shift.
The scenarios Publicis has already modeled.

Part II is where we publish that.