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O C T. 4, 2 0 2 1 | VOL . L X II NO. 17

14

SUCCESS AMID CHAOS

Meet 75 agencies around the globe
that grew this year, despite the odds.

8 CREATIVITY BRANDS
AN INDUSTRY GROWS UP
Gen Z craves honesty, so period
products are getting real.

12 BIG NUMBER
THIS IS
AWKWARD
How does an online marketplace show off its
products? By building a virtual home. Etsy House
is a true-to-scale 12-room living space where
shoppers can see how some of the site’s most
popular handmade crafts look on their phone or
5
YEARS SINCE
COCA-COLA’S
While Ryan Reynolds is
a frequent face in ads for
the brands he owns and
movies he stars in, some of
the most celebrated work
INSIDE THE BRAND computer. While Etsy is a digitally native platform, LAST GLOBAL from his agency, Maximum
Jackie Gagne of WarnerMedia on virtual product demos like this have become the CAMPAIGN, SO Effort, has barely featured
how to make your own opportunities. standard across retail categories from makeup IT’S TIME FOR the actor at all.
to clothing as some customers remain wary of A NEW ONE: And maybe that’s a
in-store experiences. —Patrick Kulp ‘REAL MAGIC’ good thing.
MNTN, the connected

40 MOOD BOARD The Week in Emojis

TV company that recently
bought Maximum Effort
Marketing and brought
Reynolds on as chief
creative officer, did an A/B
test using two spots: one
where Reynolds extols the
virtues of MNTN in person,
and another in which he
only narrates the spot.
PERSPECTIVE
There are grocery stores, It wasn’t even close.
and then there’s Wegmans. The Reynolds-voiced ad
EE MOBILE O S C A R M AY E R NETFLIX generated 117% more
CARRIER EMPLOYS A GETS INTO BRANDED ACQUIRES VIDEO GAME site visits than the one
ADWEEK PUBLISHES NEXT ON OCTOBER 11. ROBOT BARBER TO A P PA R E L W I T H S T R E E T DEVELOPER TO FURTHER
©2021. All rights reserved. ADWEEK® is a registered trademark owned SHOW OFF 5G. M E AT C L O T H I N G . GAMING AMBITIONS. featuring him on-camera.
by Adweek, LLC and used under license. Adfreak®, Adweek Brandshare®,
AgencySpy®, Brandweek®, Brand Genuis®, Brand Save®, Hot List®,
Mediaweek®, Social Times®, TVNewser® and TVSpy® are registered
Ouch.—David Griner
trademarks owned by Adweek, LLC and used under license.
UPFRONT

TALENT POOL

RAVI
AMARATUNGA
HITCHCOCK
THERE ARE NO LIMITS AT HIS
CREATIVE AGENCY SOURSOP.
BY BRITTANEY KIEFER

Starting an agency right before the onset of a

pandemic triggered some soul-searching for Ravi
Amaratunga Hitchcock. “It’s existential every day,” he
said. “What is an agency and what does it do? What is a
client? Everything seems to be in this shifting period.”
Besides world events, Hitchcock’s ruminations
spring from his unusual and winding path into the ad
industry. Soursop, the 19-month-old business he runs
with his wife, Lucy Hitchcock, bills itself as a “next-gen
creative agency” and is a culmination of his experiences
in TV, entertainment and branded content.
After studying history at the University of Cambridge,
Hitchcock dreamed of becoming a film director. But
stints at film production companies revealed “the
process of it was too slow,” so he applied for a diversity
internship at U.K. broadcaster Channel 4. As part of
the commissioning team, he helped develop programs,
including the acclaimed short film series Random Acts.
“Then, I hit a glass ceiling,” he said.
From there, he moved to the fast-paced world
of online video, helping launch and run the video
departments of Dazed Media and then Vice Media’s
fashion and culture publication, i-D. It was his first time
working across global markets, and the experience
introduced him to brand collaborations.
Those experiences set the scene for his next move.
Facing Brexit and yearning for a better work-life
balance, Hitchcock moved to Amsterdam and set up the
entertainment division of ad agency We Are Pi. Running
Pi Studios, where he created films for the likes of
WeTransfer and Nike, gave him the entrepreneurial bug.
CO-FOUNDER,

TOM BIDDULPH
Soursop was born in early 2020, with founding
client Samsung, and has worked with brands including SOURSOP
Maserati, Nike and Unicef. Hitchcock’s background in
developing entertainment pushed him to rethink the
boundaries of agencies, advertising and marketing:
“We’re not obsessed with creating a TV ad or a
poster. You can think about creating a magazine or a BIG MISTAKE LESSON LEARNED HOW HE GOT THE GIG PRO TIP
grassroots charity initiative. There’s no limitation to One recurring “We work in a An internship in “Try a lot of things
what you can think or dream up.” misstep was business that’s broadcast TV, then out. Build a bunch of
“A lot of people [in advertising] haven’t had “overpromising or about teams. I running the video different experiences,”
experiences outside of advertising. You live in this believing I could realized it’s not departments for he said. “The
strange bubble where brands are king,” he continued. do everything all about claiming two online media cross-pollination
“We are always challenging clients by saying, ‘You exist in by myself,” he said. credit, and now I companies, led to can provide
people’s lives, and they care about loads of other stuff.’” “I wanted to claim try to take myself setting up a new opportunities to
He also has different ambitions for his business that all the credit, but out of the limelight entertainment division do something new.”
do not follow the trajectory of a traditional agency. “I when I closed off and give space to at ad agency We
don’t want to scale to become a 100-person agency. We the process, there the people who Are Pi. Those varied
like the fact we have a small core team and a network was no one who deserve it.” experiences provided
of people we trust,” he said. “Really, the most important could help me.” the inspiration and
part is continuing to work with brands that are helping network for running his
to make some change and providing employees with an own creative agency.
environment where they feel valued.”

4 OCTOBER 4, 2021 | ADWEEK

1,000,000s
of people reached

1,000s
of powerful ads

50
years of expertise

20
years with Toyota

1
amazing partner:

The numbers don’t lie.

Congratulations to Burrell Communications
on their 50-year anniversary.
I FREE TRIAL FREE-FOR-ALL
n August, AMC+ landed what
has become every streaming
service’s holy grail: a coveted
Verizon partnership.
As part of a deal between the
two companies, certain customers
of Verizon’s broadband and unlimited
phone plans are entitled to a free
year of the AMC Networks streamer,
featuring ad-free programming across
its entertainment networks and early
access to original shows. The giveaway
offered a major marketing boost to the
streaming service, which is aiming to
clear 9 million subscribers by year’s end.   said Kelly Metz, Omnicom Media
“This was an aspiration of mine
and the company for a good amount
of time,” said Josh Reader, AMC
Networks’ president of distribution
and development. “It’s a really
powerful combination to be able
to marry our streaming ambitions
with [Verizon’s] knowledge of their
customers and their ability to target
those customers and put in front of
them the content that they want.”
The Verizon deal marked an
important achievement for AMC+.
Partnerships between streaming
services and internet and phone
service providers can provide a leg
up in the streaming wars, giving new
services access to sizable customer
bases, plus extra marketing muscle
and customer management expertise
they may lack on their own.
Phone and internet companies have
long used giveaways and promotions
to entice customers away from their
6 OCTOBER 4, 2021 | ADWEEK
competitors and into their ecosystems as
a matter of differentiation, said Jim Nail,
a principal analyst at Forrester. “Because
the mobile phone business is completely
commoditized and completely saturated,
the game for mobile phone players is
keeping all of their subscribers and not
having them churn out.”
On the other side of the equation
are new streaming businesses that
want to scale up fast. Media buyers are
keen on tracking monthly active users
as their main metric for evaluating the
efficacy of streaming video services,
Group’s managing director of advanced
TV activation. Streamers are more
than happy to team up with providers
in exchange for co-marketing and a
built-in potential customer base.
“The biggest benefit is exposing a
new service to a different audience than
what you might reach with your own
marketing mix,” said Gabriel Sauerhoff,
svp of digital distribution and commercial
partnerships for Discovery, which
teamed with Verizon earlier this year to
offer up to one free year of Discovery+ to
qualifying Verizon internet customers.
Striking a deal with a phone or
internet provider can boost user bases
early on. And while there is a potential
downside—these kinds of arrangements
usually come via wholesale
agreements that may lower average
revenue-per-user—the cost savings in
marketing and subscriber acquisition
can make it worthwhile, Nail said.
These kinds of partnerships have
OTHER WIRELESS COMPANIES
ARE ALSO DABBLING IN THE
STREAMING GIVEAWAY GAME.
AT&T offers free access to HBO Max’s
ad-free tier to qualifying AT&T TV,
DirecTV and AT&T mobile customers.
The AT&T-owned Cricket Wireless
gives away HBO’s ad-supported tier
to customers on its unlimited plan.
T-Mobile offers free Netflix
subscriptions to qualifying family plans.  
Sprint, which is owned by T-Mobile,
gives unlimited tier customers access
to Hulu’s ad-supported offering.
already proven successful. Three
months into Disney+’s existence, about
20% of its then-30 million subscribers
came in through a free-year giveaway
with Verizon. Disney+ now has more
than 100 million subscribers, and the
company continues to work with Verizon
to give away access to Disney+ as well
as Disney streamers Hulu and ESPN+.
Discovery+ hasn’t shared how
many subscribers it’s netted through
KELSEY SUTTON IS THE
S T R E A M I N G E D I T O R AT
ADWEEK, WHERE SHE COVERS
THE BUSINESS OF STREAMING
TELE VISION. @KELSEYMSUTTON.
its own Verizon partnership, but
Sauerhoff said the company was
“very pleased” with the results.
“There is a win-win in these
partnerships,” said Frank Boulben,
chief revenue officer of Verizon
Consumer Group. “On one side, what
we want at Verizon is to answer our
customer needs and to do it with
different services that they cannot
get from our competitors. On the
programmer side, they are looking for
a way to accelerate their penetration
at the lowest possible cost and to
partner on the billing, customer
service and lifecycle management.”
At Verizon, streaming partnerships
have resulted in “extremely high”
conversion rates; on average, Boulben
said, 50%-70% of customers either
upgrade their plans to include
continued access to a streaming
service or opt to continue paying for
the service separately. 
While telcos continue flocking to
streaming video services for customer
giveaways, those kinds of partnerships
may not last forever. If customer
interest starts to wane, phone and
internet providers may move on to
TRENT JOAQUIN FRO ADWEEK
other in-demand services—which
may be why Verizon is already eyeing
mobile game subscription offerings as
yet another differentiator.
“If there’s one thing you can
guarantee in marketing,” Nail said, “it’s
that after some period of time, in a
year or two, the world will move on to
the next shiny thing.”
®

Green
Is the
New
Black
IT’S A GOOD TIME TO BE
A PUBLISHER THAT IS
CLIMATE-CONSCIOUS.
BY LUCINDA SOUTHERN
Climate coverage, while getting
more urgent and ubiquitous, is big
business for publishers. But for this
sector to keep growing, the buy- and
sell-side need to get comfortable
showing their cards and agree on how
to measure that credibility.
Bloomberg Media’s 2-year-
old vertical Bloomberg Green
is one of the media company’s
strongest platforms for driving
subscription growth. In terms of
ads, it’s seen an increase of around
82% in environmental, social and
governance (ESG) briefs this year
compared to last, according to
its insight tool Bloomberg AiQ.
Meanwhile, the Financial Times said
the value of campaigns related to
sustainability has tripled over the
last 12 months. Globally, between
50% and two-thirds of ad briefs
received by BBC Global News are
focused on sustainability.
And ESG topics will only grow
in boardroom importance: The U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission
is demanding more detailed reporting
from publicly listed companies about
risks related to climate change by
the end of 2021.
“Climate change is one of the
biggest economic stories of our time,
and it is already transforming the
world of business,” Marie Goddard,
director of customer relationship
management at the Financial Times,
told Adweek. “It should be a major
CSA IMAGES/GETTY IMAGES
focus of our journalism, whether it’s
the energy transition, sustainable
investing, climate finance or green
technologies.”
Cred is critical
Major brands are asking agencies
to lay out sustainability pledges,
ADWEEK | OCTOBER 4, 2021
®
and in turn, agencies are starting to
ask media owners to state progress
on green thinking. But the extent
that either can audit the other is
patchy, especially since there’s no
commonly agreed upon independent
reporting metrics.
Alternatively, BBC’s 1-year-old
Future Planet aims to be as close to
zero carbon as possible. From the
site’s launch in February 2020 to
June 2021, its total carbon emissions
from travel were $2,535 (1,889
pounds), less than a one-way flight
from New York to Berlin.
Furthermore, the ad for launch
sponsor automaker Hyundai,
which focused on combatting
ocean pollution, was created with
sustainability in mind, Krystal
Bowden, vice president at BBC
StoryWorks, told Adweek. The crew
ate vegan meals, solar power was
used to charge equipment, and the
team drove electric vehicles from
London to Greece instead of flying.  Media owners, adding a
The work paid off. Dwell time
was twice as long as
average, plus video views
for branded content
were up more than
60% on expectations.
Research also showed
the campaign led to an
uptick in recommendation
and consideration.  @LUCY28SOUTHERN
However, audience metrics only
go so far.
“Sponsored content or native
advertising with its often smaller
audience reach has only exacerbated
the industry’s need for impact
metrics that can be measured at a
feasible cost,” said Wolfgang Blau,
a visiting research fellow with a
focus on the role of journalism in the
climate crisis at the Reuters Institute
of Oxford University. “With such
commonly agreed impact metrics,
publishers would also be in a better
position to justify their rates.” 
One fly in the chardonnay is the
U.K. regulatory crackdown on ads
that overstate their green impact,
which is threatening to stymie
nervous ad buyers from speaking out
at all on the subject. Take Innocent
Drinks, which is facing probes,
protests and potential fines for
allegedly overstating the positive
impact it has on the environment.  strong financial results,” said Duncan
believable narrative, vet the
companies they work
with. The Guardian, long a
first-mover in supporting
progressive change
through initiatives like
LUCINDA changing its climate-
SOUTHERN
IS ADWEEK’S
related language, lost
MEDIA EDITOR. business after it stopped
accepting ads from fossil
INSIGHTS | MEDIA
fuel firms in January 2020. Now, this
is a selling point for brands looking
for authentic partners.  
From consumers
to citizens
One issue the ad industry needs
to reconcile is how to make
consumerism and capitalism more
sustainable. 
“Talking to clients this week,
I think they ought to be spending
more money,” Tony Mattson, head of
strategy at Havas Media Group, told
Adweek. “But the more money you
put in, the more the emissions go up,
making a media plan less efficient
and effective. It requires a more
holistic view, which is hard.”
Carbon-neutral media plans aside,
rather than driving sales, campaigns
could encourage making positive
‘[The] more
money you put
in, the more the
emissions go up,
making a media
plan less efficient
and effective. It
requires a more
holistic view,
which is hard.’
Tony Mattson, head of strategy
at Havas Media Group
choices. But for better or worse,
advertisers’ eyes are on the bottom
line, which could be beneficial—for
now. Over the last few years, brands
have graduated from chasing a
positive green halo to driving sales. 
“Companies making the biggest
efforts, and who have strong ESG
scores, are the ones producing
Chater, head of sales, Europe, at
Bloomberg Media. 
What’s more, people are
increasingly citing purpose as a
factor in buying behavior.
“Price, quality, convenience
are all still there, but purpose
is climbing up,” said Michael
Balabanov svp, advertising, North
America at The Guardian. “People
are willing to pay more.” 
7
INSIGHTS | BRANDING
Young consumers
want authenticity,
and period brands
are happy to
deliver.
Color It Red
MARKETING PERIOD PRODUCTS INVOLVES
MORE TRANSPARENCY AROUND AN OFTEN
STIGMATIZED TOPIC. BY TARA WEISS
There’s a dichotomy in the feelings
tweens have about menstruating.
On one hand, many menstruators
have no idea what’s happening to
their bodies. Dana Roberts, a former
teacher, recalls how a student in her
fifth-grade class in Atlanta 13 years
ago asked another classmate if they
were dying after getting their first
period. On the opposite end of the
spectrum are young social influencers,
like Ladies of Lavender, who
unabashedly unbox period kits, post
product reviews and offer explainers
about the menstrual cycle.
RedDrop is one organization
working to bridge the gap.
8 OCTOBER 4, 2021 | ADWEEK
Roberts and co-founder Monica
Williams launched RedDrop in
December 2019 to address the lack
of period products for elementary
school-aged tweens and create an
online destination to guide parents
in talking about menstruating.
While the messaging on RedDrop
is directed at parents—since they
have the bank accounts—the actual
content is filtered through the prism
of what their tweens need to know
about menstruating.  and posts of used products.
“Women were taught periods
should be a secret,” Williams, a
physician, told Adweek. “That’s been
passed on. We’re providing bite-size
Something to
Talk About
The work of “menstrual
destigmatization” by RedDrop,
August and others appears to
have an increasingly receptive
audience. A Morning Consult
survey of 2,200 parents who
have a menstruating child
found a majority of parents
are comfortable talking to
their children about getting
their period (60% very
comfortable, 25% somewhat
comfortable).
A solid majority of parents
also say they or another family
member has talked to their
child about a range of topics
related to getting a period.
Most discussed general issues
involving periods or menstrual
cycles (83%). Additional
conversations included when
they will likely get their first
period (77%), the reproductive
system/pregnancy (68%),
what a normal (73%) and
abnormal (66%) period is like
and period products (78%).  and communications specialist at
lessons parents can consume and
share with their daughters.”
RedDrop sales have increased
3,900% between January and August
2021, according to CFO Jarrod Shaw,
though he declined to provide specific
revenue numbers. It’s one of a growing
number of startups and direct-to-
consumer companies trying to take
a piece of the $21.6 billion feminine
hygiene category and radically change
how period products are marketed.  digitally immersed that turning to
The color red
To do that, RedDrop promotes a small
but significant message: Periods are red.  about period life.
It seems obvious, but for years,
advertisements touted a pad’s
absorbency by pouring blue liquid
onto it to show it doesn’t leak. The
color red is all over RedDrop’s
website and packaging.  “normal” period blood should look like
Many brands say they want red
liquid in their ads, but platforms like TV
TARA WEISS IS A PERFORMANCE
MARKETING REPORTER FOR ADWEEK
COVERING MARKETING INNOVATION
AND THE INTERSECTION OF CULTURE
AND MARKETING. @WRITERTARA
networks don’t allow it. Social media
is leading the way, but it has its own
hurdles. Last year, Facebook removed
an ad from period retailer Modibodi,
citing its use of “sensational content”—
specifically, a blanket hanging from
a washing machine stained red.
Although the DTC ad was reinstated
after backlash, the message was clear:
Periods aren’t for public discussion.
Kimberly-Clark’s U by Kotex
received an influx of positive
comments after posting a YouTube
explainer about the menstrual cycle
by influencer Simone Giertz that
featured red liquid dripping onto
a sanitary napkin from a “uterus
machine.” Like Kimberly-Clark, P&G’s
sanitary napkin brand Always uses
red liquid to indicate blood wherever
it’s allowed in advertising. 
“We’ve heard from many people
that a more realistic representation of
blood is important to them,” Charlotte
Le Flufy, Always’ social impact
director, told Adweek. “Networks have
their own standards that dictate what
can and cannot be shown, and in some
cases red liquid is not accepted.” 
Until those rules are changed,
menstruators continue to see
unrealistic stand-ins for period blood.
“It says you can’t be real about
what happens to a menstruator’s
body,” Louise Klintner, advocacy
The Case for Her, a philanthropic
investment portfolio that addresses
women’s health issues, told Adweek.
“It tells young menstruators that
when they talk about periods it needs
to be displayed in a hygienic, sanitized
space; otherwise, it’s dirty or gross.”
According to Williams and
Roberts, that contributes to all the
questions young users have, which is
why they focus so much of the site’s
content on period education. 
Online support system
The current cohort of tweens are so
social media for support from peers
is natural. And there are a growing
number of influencers being honest
Nadya Okamoto runs August,
a period retailer and site working
to democratize access to period
education. She receives dozens of C H A R L O T T E W I L L C O X F O R A LWAY S
messages from tweens asking what
in terms of color, texture and amount.
To explain the range, Okamoto’s
TikTok features honest explainers
“From a young age, we’re taught
‘don’t talk about periods anywhere in
public,’” Okamoto said. “Period’ is not
a bad word.”
®

Happy
Holiday
Hiring
SMALL BUSINESSES
MAY STRUGGLE TO
KEEP UP AS BIG
RETAILERS OFFER
MORE AND MORE
INCENTIVES.
BY LISA LACY
Historically, fall is when retailers
begin staffing up to ensure they can
serve the shoppers who will flood in
at the stroke of midnight on Black
Friday. In fact, the National Retail
Federation estimates brands added
475,000 to 575,000 holiday workers
in 2020 alone.
But as the 2021 holiday season
approaches, there’s already a widely
reported disconnect between job
openings and unemployed Americans.
In other words, the latter are not
filling the former—and that could
spell trouble for retailers this season
if they lack staff to serve in-store
shoppers, restock shelves and
fulfill online orders. Bhushan Sethi,
joint global leader of people and
organization at professional services
firm PwC, said this is in part because
the delta variant of Covid-19 has
made job seekers even more reluctant
to take positions in sectors like retail,
which require human contact.
“People have been taking their time
through September for various reasons,
whether it’s unemployment [benefits],
stimulus payments, school reopenings
[or] safety, which is probably the
YUOAK/GETTY IMAGES
No. 1 issue for these human contact
businesses,” he explained.
Now, according to workforce
software firm UKG, 72% of retailers
are concerned they will not be able
to hire enough staff before holiday
shopping begins.
ADWEEK | OCTOBER 4, 2021
®
Hiring incentives
Titans like Walmart and Sam’s
Club have raised hourly wages,
while Amazon is offering to pay college
tuitions. We may also see businesses
appeal to employees with full-time
opportunities. According to UKG,
professional development is among the
top perks retailers offer hourly workers.
Sethi agreed the “very constrained
talent market” has spurred employers
to see the benefit in hiring and training
for the long term. In addition, PwC
research shows 40% of executives
plan to offer more flexibility when it
comes to location and scheduling.
“The fast-food industry and big-box
retailers in particular are emphasizing
safer working environments—including
a vaccine mandate in some cases—due
to fear and anxiety among job seekers
of certain aspects of the job, including
pandemic-related health concerns
and physical safety, given the rise in
harassment by customers,” he added.
Meanwhile, Josh Secrest, vp
of marketing and client advisory
at Paradox, which has developed an
AI recruiting assistant, noted hiring
bonuses potentially give retailers more
flexibility for the holidays without a
permanent pay increase. Employee
referral bonuses, on the other hand,
‘If the
divide we’re
experiencing
right now
continues,
it could get
messy.’
Josh Secrest, vp of marketing
and client advisory at Paradox
INSIGHTS | COMMERCE
are what he called “a high ROI
tactic” because they simultaneously
yield vetted candidates and reward
employees for advocacy.
Staffing shortages
But will these efforts be enough
to bridge the divide? It’s unclear.
Some, like Jay Denton, chief
analyst at employment data firm
ThinkWhy, point to younger workers
who had high unemployment rates as
of August and may gravitate toward
temporary retail positions. “This could
especially be true for those that are
looking for income while searching
for a full-time job,” he noted.
Others, like Secrest, think trouble
is brewing.
“For most retailers, seasonal hiring
has always been a challenge—even
in years where the supply/demand
equation favored employers,” he said.
“If the divide we’re experiencing right
now continues, it could get messy.”
In fact, UKG found 26% of retailers
anticipate understaffing during the
holiday season on a daily basis. If
this comes to pass, the customer
experience could suffer.
“Labor shortages definitely have the
potential to put a dent in holiday sales—
it’s bad enough not to have enough
inventory to sell, but then to have no
one to sell it on top of that will hurt,”
said Nikki Baird, vp of retail innovation
at retail technology firm Aptos.
Smaller David,
bigger Goliath
This is especially true for retailers that
don’t have the resources of Amazon
and Walmart to compete for talent
and may find themselves at even more
of a disadvantage this holiday season.
“I would anticipate that scale really
matters in this business, and those
small businesses don’t have as deep
balance sheets and reserves to rely
on to weather this storm,” Sethi said.
That’s in part because large
retailers have been investing in “digital
transformation” or building out their
digital channels, which makes them
more attractive to job applicants
as they offer broader career
opportunities than front-end retail.
“Those companies can provide
higher pay, more flexibility with hybrid
work or fully remote opportunities for
non-consumer facing roles and have
the means to make the necessary
investments to create a safe and
sanitized workplace,” Sethi said.
And while he believes smaller
retailers can still compete with niche
products or loyal customer bases, he
concedes it may ultimately be up to
the government to intervene to keep
Main Street USA alive.
L I SA L ACY I S A D W EE K ’S
COMMERCE EDITOR, WHERE SHE
FOC U S ES ON R E TA IL A N D T H E
G R O W I N G R E AC H O F A M A ZO N .
@L I S A L ACY
9

MORE THAN A VISA
IMMIGRANTS CAN MAKE AGENCIES AND THEIR WORK BETTER,
BUT THEY NEED SUPPORT TO RISE. BY SILMO BONOMI
As an immigrant, you can be the most
talented and awarded creative at an
agency, but if you’re not in a workplace
that fully supports who you truly
are, you might get the title you want
without the voice you need.
Coming to the U.S. feels like a
school cafeteria: Everyone sits with
those who are just like them. If you’re
lucky, you’ll end up working at an
agency with enough immigrants to
make you feel at home, sharing dreams
and frustrations, presentation coaches
and immigration attorneys.
But without that network, the
challenges for immigrants can be
overwhelming after they’re hired.
It’s not just about getting a green
card, building a credit score or working
hard to get rid of accents. Agencies
are always ready to import talent but
not willing to help them succeed, grow
and sit at the C-suite table.
It’s time to disrupt this mindset
and give immigrant creatives a clear
plan for development. Take the lead,
connect with other immigrants in the
industry who have climbed the ladder
and apply all of their learnings—and
struggles—to create a solid plan that
will help fellow immigrants succeed.
Here are areas where you can focus
your efforts:
Try a little empathy
English will likely be an early
stumbling block for newcomers, and
10
VOICE
while conventional language lessons
are important, the industry has
its own jargon. It takes time to get
used to business terms, colloquial
language and slang.
Rafael Paes, director of global brand
creative at Nike, once described it best:
“We always have an internal battle
saying we will never be able to sound
smart, funny or even feel we are fully
being ourselves. Try to focus beyond
the grammar mistakes, the messed up
‘ins,’ ‘ons’ and ‘ats,’ and try to see the
journey behind it. Most of us have great
histories … and a lot more to bring to
the table than our accents indicate.”
Learning a new language is
stressful. It’s on the agency to create
an environment where people are
comfortable with different accents and
grammar mistakes. Agency culture
should be based on empathy instead of
corporate impatience.
Extend a helping hand
There’s a reason it’s called culture
shock. After mastering industry
jargon, company culture is the biggest
challenge for foreign workers.
For example, it was a surprise to
have meetings scheduled at lunchtime.
For many immigrants, lunch is the
time to get together with coworkers
in a more casual environment and
create bonds beyond work.
Immigrants need someone to
talk to without judgment, a native to
Specs
Claim to fame
Silmo Bonomi is the U.S. chief
creative officer of Campbell
Ewald. Brazilian born and raised.
Creative nerd, lazy runner,
ice cream craver. Husband to
(the) one, father to two and
friend of many.
Base Los Angeles
Twitter @silmobonomi
‘The global
knowledge that
immigrants
bring to the
table can
enrich the lives
and the work
of colleagues.’
their new culture to help understand
workplace processes and local and
national customs. More importantly,
these meetings should be cultural
exchanges so that it is not just the
immigrant who is learning and growing.
The global knowledge that immigrants
bring to the table can enrich the lives
and work of colleagues.
Cut the red tape
The alphabet soup of taxes, retirement
plans, 529 savings accounts, W-4
forms, health insurance and
everything else that you have to fill
in, sign up for and make decisions
about can be overwhelming.
Agencies can help by explaining
the choices, terminology and
requirements of all those forms.
Create a series of classes or seminars
suited to various life stages. Not doing
this has cost people thousands of
dollars, which is a tough way to end
your first year in America.
Immigrants in advertising
Advertising generally does a poor job
reflecting the impact of immigrants
on American culture, while relying
on cultural appropriation and lack
of authenticity. Bringing immigrants
I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y K AT I A E S P I N O S A F O R A D W E E K
to U.S. agencies can help, but that’s
just the first step.
Agencies must bring immigrants
to advertising at every level. Have a
clear and effective plan to help them
succeed in their new job and country.
Only then can immigrants use their own
experiences to create authentic work
and truly help reflect today’s America.
So, fellow immigrants: Next time
someone offers you the job you really
want, make sure it comes with the
opportunity to speak your mind and
effect change. Only then will you be
able to be your full self.
OCTOBER 4, 2021 | ADWEEK ®
 ®

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 INSIDE THE BRAND

How did you get to where you are
today? I started my career at HBO.
Every few years, I would pursue
new opportunities within the sales
and marketing organization that
allowed me to develop a diverse set
of skills and experience different
leadership styles. I was also drawn
to roles that involve launching new
initiatives—that’s what eventually
took me to Six Flags. I eventually
returned to HBO to work on a new
college marketing program and was
ultimately recruited to help build the
multicultural marketing team.
Who has helped you in your
journey? How did they help shape
your career? Incredibly talented
women, many of whom continue to
be mentors. They provide honest
feedback on my performance, give
me exposure to senior executives and
lead by example. I like to say I channel
them all every day and ask: “What
would Lucinda or Shelley do? How
would Angie handle this situation?”

Tell us about what you are doing

‘Look for opportunities
now. I lead strategy and development
of marketing initiatives to connect to demonstrate
Black, Latinx, AAPI and LGBTQ+
audiences to our programming. My
team creates culturally relevant
the skills others
campaigns and brand experiences to
drive engagement among multicultural
viewers while shining a light on the
perceive you lack.’
diverse stories, storytellers and talent
featured on HBO Max.
What’s the single best piece of
What’s one way you’ve invested advice you’ve ever received?
in yourself that’s had the most Allow yourself to be vulnerable.
impact over the course of your Vulnerability is what leads to trust.
career? I’ve taken advantage of On a lunch with a former boss, she
as many professional development told me I was trying too hard to be
opportunities as possible, especially perfect. “People can’t relate to you
the tools that help meet the unique if you try to be perfect all the time,”
challenges that confront professionals she said. She was right.
of color in leadership roles. Most
recently, I worked with a public What does success mean for you?
speaking coach to help me feel more Staying true to what I believe in at
confident about talking to the press work and at home. Professionally, it
and large audiences. means doing work that I’m passionate
about and leading with empathy.
How do you view work-life Personally, it means being part of a
integration, especially now? What community centered [on] respect,
advice can you share with others generosity and diversity of thought.
who may be struggling with it?
Be very intentional about scheduling
time for yourself during the day, even
if it’s just 15 minutes. We all need to
recharge to do our best work.

Can you recall a situation where

you’ve dealt with typecasting in
INSIDE THE BRAND SERIES
DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION the workplace? What advice do
CMO MOVES

JACKIE GAGNE
SVP OF MULTICULTURAL MARKETING
you have for other women on how
to overcome typecasting at work?
At the manager level, I held a
number of roles that focused on INNOVATORS
WOMEN TRAILBLAZERS
execution and process. I wanted
to be a director but realized I had
been typecast as a “doer” and there
were doubts around my strategic
abilities. My advice for other women
GEN ZEOS
is to raise your hand for stretch
assignments. Look for opportunities CHALLENGERS
P H O T O : N O E LT Y

WARNERMEDIA MENTORSHIP
to demonstrate the skills others
perceive you lack. Be prepared to
leave the organization if it becomes SEE THE LATEST ON ADWEEK.COM.
By Luz Corona difficult to change mindsets.

12 OCTOBER 4, 2021 | ADWEEK ®

W I N N E R ’ S P L AY B O O K

KALEN THORNTON DAVID TINSON

GATORADE CMO AT PEPSICO CMO AT ELECTRONIC ARTS (EA)

THE POWER OF COMMUNITY

ELECTRONIC ARTS AND GATORADE CMOS ON WHY SHARING
IS THE KEY TO GREAT EXPERIENCES. BY AL MANNARINO

STRENGTHEN MEET FIND YOUR IN THE SPIRIT OF INVEST IN

DIFFERENT
MUSCLES
Thornton: There’s no
longer a one-size-fits-
all approach as you’re
looking at your platforms
to engage with these new
generations. They can
tell whether or not you’re
showing up authentically.
The manner in which you
engage with content on
TikTok is not the same as it
is on Instagram or YouTube.
It requires a different sort
of planning, muscle and
even methodology that
our team is still learning
from. But I cheat—I have
a 10- and 12-year-old. I’m
not only looking at it as a
responsibility as a dad but
as a marketer and CMO.
EXPECTATIONS
THROUGH PRODUCTS
Tinson: Consumers are
expecting things from
brands. They’re expecting
brands to have a point
of view. Our employees
are expecting us to take
positions. We know that trust
does drive growth. We know
that an increasingly high
percentage of consumers are
saying they’re going to spend
their time and money with
brands that they can trust,
are transparent and willing
to put their neck out there
and take a stance. Where
we really want to focus is in
the products themselves.
We are increasingly driving
diversity into our games.
Representation in the
products themselves is
probably the most powerful
thing we can do.
UNIVERSAL
LOVE LANGUAGE
Thornton: The awesome
parallel between sports,
gaming, tech and even
music is that they represent
these spaces that are
almost universal in terms of
their love language. You can
go pick up a ball or pick up a
game with someone across
the world, and you don’t
even have to speak each
other’s language. Same
thing with gaming. You can
pick a device and have this
shared experience across a
multitude of communities
in a way that elevates it to
much more than what we
talk about within driving the
business. We are looking
at the holistic consumer
journey and overall
engagement.
COLLABORATION
Tinson: How do you get
to the most authentic or
compelling experiences?
You listen and you bring
them into the process,
whoever “they” are. For us,
sometimes it’s athletes,
streamers, creators or
influencers. Our teams need
to operate and understand
who are the ones who drive
influence. We do these
things called the community
design councils, and it
doesn’t mean that we bring
in this group of players and
say, “Tell us what to make.”
But we do bring them in,
and we engage with them
regularly to help us share
our thinking.
DIVERSE TEAMS
Thornton: We have a
responsibility to our
athletes that they can see
themselves in our brand
and be proud of our actions
that we take. That is an
amazing partnership when
you think about some
of the individuals on our
roster and the diversity
that is represented there.
We know we can do more.
We recently launched a
women’s advisory council,
and it’s helping us out
from a gender perspective.
We’ve got a fair amount of
racial diversity, but we also
know we need tons of other
lenses in which we’re going
to better engage with this
next generation.

C H E C K O U T T H E C M O M O V E S P O D C A S T AT A D W E E K . C O M / C M O M O V E S

ADWEEK | OCTOBER 4, 2021

®
13
IF RUNNING AN AGENCY BEFORE THE PANDEMIC WAS DIFFICULT,
heading one up while the world was in lockdown was a Sisyphean task. As Covid-19 descended
upon the global ad industry, agencies scrambled to figure out ways to stay afloat during one of the
most disruptive periods in advertising. Some resorted to massive layoffs, others folded or were
acquired by bigger agencies and holding companies, but some rose to the challenge and were able
to not just stay in business, but also chart a course to profitability while avoiding layoffs entirely.

The industry’s many bright minds devised solutions that withstood the tough new tests of the
pandemic while adapting to new ways of working and doing business. Ecommerce rose to the top as
people stayed in, and media, while greatly altered from its traditional buys, found new ways to address
the changing habits of consumers. Those who were able to pivot quickly were able to grow. Agencies in
all sectors—from b-to-b and media to performance and creative—took different paths to success and
represent all areas of the U.S. and around the globe. Here’s a look at Adweek’s Fastest Growing agencies
for 2021 and what they’ve done to navigate their way through a very challenging year. —Kyle O’Brien

HOW W E CA L CUL ATED OUR LI S T To be eligible for Adweek ’s Fas tes t Grow ing lis t , agencies prov ided three year s of
earned revenue, from 2018 to 2020, and had at least $25 0,0 0 0 in revenue in 2018. Par ticipating agencies were required
to c er tif y the ac cur acy of their repor ted revenue f igures, and Adweek per for med additional auditing to deter mine the
ac cur acy of the submissions. Due to pr ivacy, f igures are not dis clos ed. Agency des cr ip tions are bas ed on submission for ms.
 TOP 75 AGENCIES
(BY % CHANGE IN REVENUE)

RANK AGENCY HQ GROWTH % CATEGORY RANK AGENCY HQ GROWTH % CATEGORY

1 Movers+Shakers Santa Monica, Calif. 2,227% Creative 39 Constellation Agency New York 113% Full-service
2 Wpromote El Segundo, Calif. 1,551% Digital 40 Hathway San Luis Obispo, Calif. 113% Digital
3 KLIK Arlington, Va. 1,006% Digital 41 Blue Wheel Birmingham, Mich. 110% Digital
4 Whtwrks Inc. New York 820% Full-service 42 Nimbus Inc. Louisville, Ky. 109% Full-service
5 RingoFire Mktg. and Adv. Greenville, S.C. 746% Full-service 43 Bellwood Labs Atlanta 101% Digital
6 NP Digital San Diego 585% Digital 44 Five Blocks Inc. New York 96% Reputation management
7 We Are Rosie Atlanta 556% Flexible talent supplier 45 Journey Further Leeds, U.K. 95% Digital
8 Amasa San Diego 541% Digital 46 William Thomas Digital Inc. Toronto 93% Digital
9 Digible Inc. Englewood, Colo. 460% Digital 47 Fingerpaint Saratoga Springs, N.Y. 90% Full-service
10 Adesiem Clayton, Mo. 451% Digital 48 The Variable Winston-Salem, N.C. 89% Full-service
11 Billion Dollar Boy London 378% Creative 49 Humanaut Chattanooga, Tenn. 86% Full-service
12 SitePartners Surrey, Canada 357% Full-service 50 digitalfarm Abu Dhabi, UAE 84% Digital
13 Phiture Berlin 346% Digital 51 PMG Fort Worth, Texas 84% Digital
14 Chicory New York 332% Digital 52 Glow New York 83% Digital
15 growthbuster Torrance, Calif. 310% Digital 53 Flock Creative Network Jakarta, Indonesia 82% Full-service
16 Born & Bred San Francisco 297% Brand 54 imre Baltimore 77% Full-service
17 Trends Paris Paris 281% Media 55 Good Apple New York 77% Media
18 Thinkingbox Vancouver, Canada 255% Full-service 56 SmartBug Media Newport Beach, Calif. 74% Full-service
19 Pattern Albany, Calif. 230% Digital 57 Coegi Columbia, Mo. 72% Media
20 SourceCode Communications New York 224% Full-service 58 Digital Hyve Syracuse, N.Y. 71% Digital
21 Looney Advertising & Branding Montclair, N.J. 218% Full-service 59 Dept Amsterdam 62% Full-service
22 Cheil Worldwide New York 211% Full-service 60 Pavone Harrisburg, Pa. 61% Full-service
23 Marketing Doctor Inc. Northampton, Mass. 186% Media 61 The Basement Indianapolis 61% Full-service
24 Power Digital Marketing San Diego 185% Full-service 62 Hybrid Marketing Co Denver 59% Full-service
25 Oliver North America New York 183% Full-service 63 The SEO Works Sheffield, U.K. 58% Digital
26 Hylink Digital Los Angeles 172% Full-service 64 January Digital New York 55% Digital
27 Whalar New York 165% Influencer 65 United Media Services Bucharest, Romania 54% Media
28 Cashmere Agency Los Angeles 164% Full-service 66 Tinuiti New York 50% Full-service
29 Arts & Letters Creative Co. Richmond, Va. 144% Creative 67 Fortnight Collective LLC Boulder, Colo. 50% Full-service
30 Viral Nation Mississauga, Canada 138% Full-service 68 P3 Media New York 50% Full-service
31 Dagger Atlanta 134% Full-service 69 FIG New York 47% Full-service
32 829 Studios Boston 132% Digital 70 New Engen Inc. Seattle 46% Digital
33 Media.Monks Hilversum, Netherlands 124% Digital 71 FlyteVu Nashville, Tenn. 44% Full-service
34 ThreeSixtyEight Baton Rouge, La. 123% Full-service 72 Walker Sands Chicago 43% Full-service
35 Growth Marketing Systems Rosebery, Australia 122% Digital 73 CMI Media Group King of Prussia, Pa. 40% Media
36 Alpha Business Images LLC Dallas 121% Full-service 74 Reach Agency Santa Monica, Calif. 40% Creative
37 Bounteous Chicago 118% Digital 75 Brunet-García Advertising Jacksonville, Fla. 40% Full-service
38 Drive Social Media St. Louis 118% Full-service
 A PROPERTY OF

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 TOP 10 AGENCIES (% CHANGE
IN REVENUE)

Agency growth means looking to the future and trying to predict what will
happen. It involves forecasting, being at the top end of trends and having a
little bit of luck along the way. It also involves changing course when needed
and not giving up when the unexpected happens. Each individual agency must
chart its own unique path to success, and Adweek’s top 10 Fastest Growing
agencies have all found their way to the top.

2 WPROMOTE
HQ: El Segundo, Calif.
Growth: 1,551%
Category: Digital

Wpromote challenges every client to

think like a challenger—even century-old
Movers+Shakers' Whirlpool, which the agency is helping
TikTok work accelerate as a direct-to-consumer
business. Wpromote has built that mindset
through the development of its talent,
investing in every employee to turn them
into subject matter experts through
training and mentorship.
Chief relationship officer Mike Stone

1 MOVERS+SHAKERS Growth:
2,227%
HQ: SANTA MONICA, CALIF.
CATEGORY: CREATIVE
Movers+Shakers was one of the first agencies to
venture into the TikTok space, and it’s found booming
success at the forefront of the social revolution.
Founded in 2016 as a collaboration between
Broadway performer and director Geoffrey
Goldberg and marketing expert Evan Horowitz,
Movers+Shakers has grown exponentially through
its smart use of culture and social media, elevating
brands through TikTok and other platforms. The
agency now has offices in New York and Los Angeles.
“We were one of the first agencies to identify TikTok
as an emerging platform back in early 2019, when it
was very fringe,” Horowitz says. “Our early work on
TikTok became quite famous—it made TikTok famous.”
The agency first worked with cosmetics
company e.l.f. to develop the #eyeslipsface hashtag
challenge and a 15-second original song called
“Eyes.Lips.Face.” Since that blew up on the then-
fledgling social platform, Movers+Shakers has
gone on to create successful campaigns for other
brands, including Amazon, Mattel and Match.
The agency recently surpassed 150 billion
views on its TikTok campaigns, but Goldberg and
Horowitz note that it isn’t just a TikTok agency.
“One of the things that allowed us to keep
growing is that we keep innovating and helping
find new ways for brands to connect to culture,”
Horowitz says. “We want to help them build cultural
relevance, cool-factor buzz, and that’s why brands
are really flocking to us in a big way.”
To keep up with that culture, the agency looks
not only to social media, but also to microcultures
and influencers, and it has started offering unique
nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, to super fans in
order to raise awareness and interest in brands
through the bidding process, and courting brand
collaborations, as it did successfully with e.l.f. and
Chipotle on a food-inspired makeup line.
Goldberg says the agency is building an agile
model that lets it listen constantly to cultural
conversations and activate campaigns quickly.
“That’s what’s led to a lot of these really cool
campaigns, because they’re really culturally
relevant,” he says.
For its ability to keep a finger on the pulse of
culture and execute viral campaigns, Movers+Shakers
tops Adweek’s Fastest Growing agencies list, with
over 2,000% growth over the past three years. —K.O.
says Wpromote prides itself on giving
employees clear career growth. They, in
turn, recruit more talent, which results in
Wpromote building teams that clients like
Avail, Spanx and Transunion love. And all
that leads to 1,550% growth over the past
three years. The agency is growing rapidly,
with nearly 700 current employees, and it
projects to grow to 800 by the end of 2021
and hit about 1,000 during 2022.
“We’re able to bring in a lot of high
achievers, and we can give them a path for
growth within our business,” says Stone.
Wpromote’s success with talent,
he says, goes hand in hand with tech.
Its Polaris tool fuels the agency’s
nimbleness, helping automate tasks like
monitoring the pacing and planning of
media budgets and how well creative is
performing across platforms.
Ultimately, that leads employees
to think more about the strategy and
less about work that could burn them
out. “[Polaris] leads to more strategic
conversations with the client to get to a
better growth outcome,” Stone says.
—Jameson Fleming

18 OCTOBER 4, 2021 | ADWEEK ®


3 KLIK
HQ: Arlington, Va.
Growth: 1,006%
Category: Digital
James Dressing founded KLIK in
his apartment bedroom about three
years ago after recognizing a blind
spot among agencies: When they were
fixated on creativity, they often forgot
to consider data.
“Agencies really didn’t understand
business models well,” says the
founder and CEO of KLIK, which
now has 49 employees. “They had a
really tough time working with data
to understand how to hit cost of
acquisition goals, performance metrics
and awareness numbers.”
KLIK started out with ad-tech
clients and has ventured into the
fin-tech, CPG and nonprofit spaces.
Dressing is proudest of his agency’s
work with United Way, which focused
'THE GOAL AT KLIK IS TO HELP
CLIENTS BETTER FIT THEIR BUSINESS
MODEL INTO THE MARKETING SPACE
FROM A DATA-FIRST STANDPOINT.'
JAMES DRESSING, FOUNDER AND CEO
on reevaluating the nonprofit’s media
approach to increase donations at the
lowest possible cost.
KLIK helped United Way boost
its revenue with a TikTok campaign
starring Seattle Seahawks’
quarterback Russell Wilson and during
an end-of-year giving campaign. As a
result, the organization saw six times
more donations, a $500,000 increase
in individual donations and more than
14,000 content clicks. Among KLIK’s
other success stories with clients
are leading Golden Gate University to
a 50% increase in cost per lead and
boosting online education platform
GetSmarter’s leads by 66%.
“The goal at KLIK is to help
clients better fit their business model
into the marketing space from a
data-first standpoint,” Dressing says.
—Emmy Liederman
20
TOP 10 AGENCIES BY % CHANGE IN REVENUE
Lego
4 WHTWRKS INC.
HQ: New York
Growth: 820%
Category: Full-service
Whtwrks is a strategy, production
and creative agency whose mission
is to depict people of color in a
positive and genuine way. The
founders describe it as a Black
business that connects culturally
with consumers, and brands see an
inherent value in having Whtwrks’
expertise in the space.
Whtwrks co-founder Martin
Ekechukwu tells Adweek his
agency has grown because it
presented itself “more obviously
as being Black-owned with a
core expertise in culture, cultural
storytelling and authenticity.” It
utilizes its unique point of view to
help brands better reach Black,
brown and Asian audiences.
To keep the agency’s growth
strong, Whtwrks plans to showcase
its award-winning work to raise the
profile of the business, while adding
additional team members to help
handle the increased workload.
“We have not needed to expand out
our business development thus far
because of how much incoming we
receive,” says Ekechukwu. —K.O.
5 RINGOFIRE MARKETING
AND ADVERTISING
HQ: Greenville, S.C.
Growth: 746%
Category: Full-service
RingoFire isn’t shy about letting its
clients know the founders started the
shop without ever working for an ad
agency. In fact, they gave themselves
the moniker “unagency” as a nod to
their paths through brand marketing
and corporate offices to the creation of
the Greenville, S.C.-based agency.
“I managed many agencies when I
was at the corporate level, so I knew
what I liked and didn’t like about them,”
says founder Brian Stearns, who is a
partner alongside brothers Richard and
Marco Carrizales. “I decided to kind
of build something that was more like
a support system consultancy with
agency-type people.”
Stearns says RingoFire, which
quickly outgrew its office and has
moved into a four-building campus at
an old weaving mill, has been doubling
its revenue every year since it was
founded, while tripling revenue growth
in the past year due to its clients’
successes during the pandemic—the
'I DECIDED TO KIND OF BUILD
SOMETHING THAT WAS MORE LIKE
A SUPPORT SYSTEM CONSULTANCY
WITH AGENCY-TYPE PEOPLE.'
BRIAN STEARNS, FOUNDER
agency works heavily with home
improvement and consumer goods
brands. In total, its three-year growth
amounted to a staggering 746%.
RingoFire, which bills itself as
a full-service agency with a full
production studio, works with Lowe’s,
specifically on some of its house
brands like Cobalt and Project Source,
and it recently launched its first
national TV spot on Discovery for Apex
Tool Group. —J.F.
Neil Patel
6 NP DIGITAL
HQ: San Diego
Growth: 585%
Category: Digital
Neil Patel, a marketing consultant
and trusted source of all things SEO,
has been tapped by some of the
world’s biggest advertisers—Amazon,
Facebook and Google, to name a few.
But after being overwhelmed by client
demand, Patel decided to start his
own agency in 2017.
So, working alongside co-
founder Mike Kamo, he introduced
NP Digital, which has grown from a
consulting firm to a one-stop-shop
for performance marketing services
like SEO, paid social media and paid
search. The company is not beholden
to shareholders, which CEO Michael
Gullaksen says has contributed to its
ability to innovate and grow.
“Coming from a consultancy
background to a media background
is a very unique way to approach
performance marketing,” he says.
“Not being tied to legacy, nondigital
heritage helps us grow a little bit
faster than performance agencies that
are part of holding companies.”
Clients of NP Digital, which brands
itself as the “alternative to the agency
status quo,” include Adobe, Party City
and Fiji Water. The company expects
2021 revenue to hit $70 million, a
112% increase from 2020.
“Over the last few years,
agencies have been so focused on
profitability, which has created a
difficult relationship with clients,”
says Gullaksen. “We deliver a
high-quality product while focusing
on client satisfaction and our
employees.” —E.L.
OCTOBER 4, 2021 | ADWEEK ®
We made a believer
out of Adweek.
Now we want to
make a believer
out of you, too.

At imre, we make believers. Out of our clients, Are you ready to

and out of each other. We’re looking for talented, believe yet?
like-minded people to join our growing agency. The
kind of people that like to walk the walk. That have
that fire in the belly. That believe that how you do
something is just as important as what you do. imre.com/careers

7 WE ARE ROSIE
HQ: Atlanta
Growth: 556%
Category: Flexible
talent supplier
We Are Rosie was founded by
Stephanie Nadi Olson in 2018 with a
mission of supporting its people while
providing a workplace that treats
everyone with dignity and access
to opportunity. It is a flexible talent
platform that pairs Fortune 500 brands
and their agencies with independent
marketing talent, who can be hired for
numerous projects.
“I determined I wanted to dedicate
my life to supporting people who are
marginalized by the rigid systems
of work,” Olson, one of Adweek’s
Women Trailblazers, told Adweek
earlier this year.
The agency noted that it saw
thousands of highly skilled marketers
opt out of the traditional way
of working—most of them from
marginalized, underrepresented or
underserved groups. So, it created a
viable way for them to work on terms
that work for them, and for brands to
access that trove of talent efficiently.
We Are Rosie is now a thriving
community of over 7,500 diverse
and highly skilled independent
marketers, helping companies like
Bumble, Facebook and IBM maximize
their agility, resilience, inclusion and
creativity. New major enterprise client
wins for We Are Rosie include Microsoft,
Facebook, Diageo and IHG. —K.O.
22
TOP 10 AGENCIES BY % CHANGE IN REVENUE
8 AMASA
HQ: San Diego
Growth: 541%
Category: Digital
To cut its customer acquisition
costs on Facebook, Colgate-
Palmolive turned to Amasa to drive
down costs for its Hum IoT-enabled
toothbrush. Within a few weeks,
Amasa had cut that cost in half, says
CEO Alex Brown. That success led to
working on more services like CRM
and media buying across Facebook,
Snapchat and TikTok.
“We pride ourselves on being, in
addition to a performance marketing
agency, a very full-funnel agency,”
Brown says, adding the agency dives
into its clients’ entire business. “We
just really want to understand the
entire user experience and the entire
customer journey from end to end.”
According to Brown, the agency,
which has grown revenue 541% over
the past three years, works with
clients that spend at least $50,000
on media each year, but also has
an incubator program for fledgling
ecommerce businesses that can’t
hit that threshold. Brown says the
program, a 12-week boot camp that
provides deliverables including a
‘WE PRIDE OURSELVES ON BEING,
IN ADDITION TO A PERFORMANCE
MARKETING AGENCY, A VERY
FULL-FUNNEL AGENCY.'
ALEX BROWN, CEO
comprehensive analysis of the client’s
business and recommendations
on media buying, helps distinguish
Amasa from its competitors.
Currently, the San Diego-based
agency has about 30 employees,
but Brown hopes to reach 50
in 2022 to support the shop’s
exponential growth. —J.F.
9 DIGIBLE INC.
HQ: Englewood, Colo.
Growth: 460%
Category: Digital
As the CEO of Digible, a Denver-based
agency that specializes in multifamily
and apartment marketing, Reid Wicoff
wants to embrace industry innovation
while ensuring every employee is
aware of their value. Since founding the
company in 2017, Wicoff has hired 53
full-time employees and over the past
three years, revenue has grown 460%.
‘WE WORK FOR EACH OTHER AND
NOT FOR OURSELVES, AND PEOPLE
ARE ENCOURAGED TO BE SUPER
CURIOUS. THAT’S A BIG PART
OF WHAT DRIVES INNOVATION
AND BETTER STRATEGY.'
REID WICOFF, CEO
He attributes that growth to Digible’s
supportive work environment, which he
says facilitates a feeling of job security.
According to Wicoff, “Will I be
left behind?” is a common sentiment
among marketing professionals as
technology continues to develop, which
is why he remains determined to craft
a people-first culture.
“We need to make sure people are
developed properly in the industry and
know they have value,” he says. “That
culture is a big part of why people love
working here. In 10 years from now,
you’ll see the same faces.”
Wicoff stressed that helping
marketers take pride in their work is
a crucial part of employee retention.
As the company continues to develop,
he is most focused on maintaining
that supportive camaraderie while
embracing technological innovation.
“We work for each other and not for
ourselves, and people are encouraged
to be super curious,” he says. “That’s a
big part of what drives innovation and
better strategy.” —E.L.
Acura
10 ADESIEM
HQ: Clayton, Mo.
Growth: 451%
Category: Digital
Adesiem, formerly called Tenshi,
set out to solve its clients’ challenges
and help them build and execute
large-scale advertising and marketing
campaigns. In recent years, the
agency has become more data-driven,
leaning heavily on analyses and data
science to produce results that exceed
industry benchmarks in terms of
returns on ad spend and revenue and
business growth.
“Since 2018, we have seen an
exponential growth in revenue,
which has continued beyond 2020,”
a company spokesperson says. “We
attribute this growth to our proprietary
systems, suites, processes and
machine-learning AI that have been in
development for half a decade.”
According to the agency, it
consistently produces an average of
18 times return on ad spend across
industries. Its business model is 90%
retainer, with all services included,
and the agency doesn’t hold its clients
to yearly contracts, so the onus is on
its teams to perform. Adesiem boasts
a 98% client retention rate since its
inception over a decade ago.
Adesiem has built a team of data
scientists for heavy data analyses and
built custom algorithms and systems
to understand its clients’ customers
at a granular level, to market to
them, cut wasted spend and find new
avenues of revenue growth. —K.O.
OCTOBER 4, 2021 | ADWEEK ®
 LARGE AGENCIES (Over 200
employees)

Adweek’s top large

agencies think big and
do big work to prove it.
These shops represent
both U.S. and international
regions and speak to
worldwide audiences.
Here are the Fastest
Growing large agencies
(over 200 employees) by
percent change in revenue.
Wpromote, Avail

1 WPROMOTE
HQ: El Segundo, Calif.
Growth:
1,551%

4 OLIVER NORTH AMERICA 6 DRIVE SOCIAL MEDIA

Category: Digital
SEE
TOP 10
LIST
Overall rank: 2

2 NP DIGITAL
HQ: New York | Growth: 183% HQ: St. Louis | Growth: 118%
Category: Full-service Category: Full-service
SEE
TOP 10
LIST
Overall rank: 25 Overall rank: 38
Oliver’s “inside-out” focus for its clients has Drive focuses most of its efforts on driving
HQ: San Diego | Growth: 585% fueled growth since its 2004 founding. Having trackable ROI for its partners. The agency has
Category: Digital created more than 300 built-for-purpose developed a proprietary tracking platform
Overall rank: 6 agencies, Oliver’s priority is a “shared roof” called Marketing Milk that allows clients to log
perspective, which enables it to operate with in remotely to view real-time reports on the

3 POWER DIGITAL MARKETING

speed and nimbleness. Completely devoted to
designing, building and operating bespoke in-
house agencies for brands, Oliver has thrived on
the strength of its focused offering. —K.C.
HQ: San Diego | Growth: 185%
ROI and RoAS of their social media campaigns.
This focused approach is helping accelerate the
company’s growth. —A.C.

7 BOUNTEOUS
Category: Full-service

Overall rank: 24
Power Digital helps brands—including new
clients Houseplant (Seth Rogen’s cannabis
brand) and Black-owned hair care brand Mielle
Organics—scale revenue sustainably and
increase profits by using data and analytics to
guide strategy. Its proprietary, machine-learning
platform SPRnova analyzes business growth
opportunities and provides a corresponding
road map of how to execute and track progress
across marketing channels. —K.C.
5 MEDIA.MONKS
HQ: Hilversum, Netherlands | Growth: 124%
Category: Digital
Overall rank: 33
Media.Monks offers digital advertising and
marketing services in 31 countries. Its strategy
revolves around creating digital marketing
solutions that embrace data, content and digital
media. Like many companies, the primary
sources of Media.Monks’ growth in 2021 came
from helping brands quickly adapt to a digital-
first world when at-home audiences suddenly
became an urgent priority. —A.C.
HQ: Chicago | Growth: 118%
Category: Digital
Overall rank: 37
Several acquisitions in 2019 spearheaded
growth at Bounteous, a digital experience
consultancy that started in 2003. Despite the
fiscal challenges of 2020, Bounteous continued
its 20% compound annual growth rate, with over
$100 million in revenue, and the firm won several
multiyear, co-innovation accounts, exceeding its
business development goals. The agency also
recently acquired Lister Digital. —A.C.

24 OCTOBER 4, 2021 | ADWEEK ®

8 FINGERPAINT
HQ: Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
Growth: 90%
Category: Full-service
Overall rank: 47
Fingerpaint is biopharma’s analytics-
enabled commercialization partner for
integrated solutions. The health and
wellness marketing firm is known for
its innovative, data-driven approach
to providing integrated marketing
solutions to a growing roster of health
care clients. In 2020, Fingerpaint
gained 24 new clients—a 41% growth
rate, and growth from existing clients
grew 59%. —A.C.
9 PMG
HQ: Fort Worth, Texas | Growth: 84%
Category: Digital
Overall rank: 51
PMG is a global independent digital
agency with a roster of clients
including Apple, Athleta, Beats by Dre,
Glossier, McDonald’s, Old Navy, Planet
Fitness, TikTok and Sephora. The
company, which was named Adweek’s
Breakthrough Media Agency of the
Year for 2021, racks up top industry
kudos every year, with 2021 accolades
from Cannes Lions, Deloitte Inc. and
Entrepreneur, and has a more than
90% client retention rate. —C.W.
10 DEPT
HQ: Amsterdam | Growth: 62%
Samsung
Category: Full-service
Overall rank: 59
Digital marketing agency Dept
began in 2015 with a goal to
expand to 10 countries and
reach $ 117.4 million (100
million euros) in revenue
within three years—it achieved
it in two. Since then, it has
grown into a 13-country
global enterprise with a client
roster that includes Samsung,
Patagonia, Google, Netflix,
Tesla, Philips and Bose. —C.W.
The Creative Agency
for the Influencer Age
We believe influencers and creators have the power to
reinvent advertising as we know it. (And they’re already
doing so). But that belief means nothing if no-one shares
it with us.
Thank you clients for trusting our vision for this new age.
Thank you creators for joining us as collaborators.
Thank you to every single colleague working at BDB
for helping us achieve this vision.
Thank you platforms for giving us this opportunity
to connect with great creative minds across the globe.
It’s because of you that we’re one of the fastest-growing
agencies in the world.
London | New York | New Orleans
 MEDIUM AGENCIES (51-200
employees)

This year’s batch of

burgeoning midsize shops
comprises some big-name
brands that nonetheless
maintain a leaner workforce.
Here are the Fastest
Growing medium agencies
(51-200 employees).

1 MOVERS+SHAKERS
HQ: Santa Monica, Calif.
Growth:
2,227%
Arts & Letters

SEE
Category: Creative TOP 10
LIST
Overall rank: 1

2 RINGOFIRE MARKETING
AND ADVERTISING
HQ: Greenville, S.C. | Growth: 746%
SEE
TOP 10
LIST
5 PHITURE
HQ: Berlin | Growth: 346%
7 CHEIL WORLDWIDE
HQ: New York | Growth: 211%
Category: Full-service Category: Digital Category: Full-service
Overall rank: 5 Overall rank: 13 Overall rank: 22
Phiture is a mobile growth consultancy that Boasting 55 offices on six continents, Cheil
uses cutting-edge analytics and deep domain embodies the global agency model with

3 DIGIBLE INC. SEE

TOP 10
LIST

HQ: Englewood, Colo. | Growth: 460%

expertise to help its clients grow their mobile
apps. Aiming to be leaders in mobile growth
in particular, the agency provides App Store
optimization, retention and CRM, and a host of
precision and versatility. The agency boasts
its speed to market and adjusting to market
changes. Its primary growth has come from
fostering and enhancing a long-standing
Category: Digital premium services to help its clients establish partnership with Samsung, with a recent focus
Overall rank: 9 competencies they can eventually take on on the U.S. market. —K.C.
themselves. —K.C.

4 BILLION DOLLAR BOY

HQ: London | Growth: 378%
Category: Creative
Overall rank: 11
Billion Dollar Boy is a global agency that
connects content creators with creative brands
to deliver influencer marketing campaigns.
The agency has produced over 42,000 pieces
of content, activated campaigns across 48
countries and in more than 17 languages and
sees influencer marketing as a discipline, not
an add-on. The main sources of the agency’s
growth have been new business, repeat
business and referrals. —Kennyatta Collins
6 THINKINGBOX
HQ: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Growth: 255%
Category: Full-service
Overall rank: 18
Thinkingbox is a global collective shaping the
future of brands like Adobe, Intuit, Riot Games
and Pinterest with a diverse team of partners
who blend business with technology and creative
storytelling. Even though the pandemic proved
to be a fierce challenge, Thinkingbox leaned on
its core services, and instead of layoffs, it tripled
its staff during 2020 and early 2021. —K.C.
8 WHALAR
HQ: New York | Growth: 165%
Category: Social media/influencer
Overall rank: 27
Whalar is driven by tech to leverage influencers
and data. As Covid-19 transformed the market’s
focus, Whalar pushed new ways of production
and took advantage of growth generators like
TikTok. The agency leans into connectivity over
promotions and has won two Cannes Lions. —K.C.

26 OCTOBER 4, 2021 | ADWEEK ®

9 CASHMERE AGENCY
HQ: Los Angeles | Growth: 164%
10 ARTS & LETTERS CREATIVE CO.
HQ: Richmond, Va. | Growth: 144% ‘WE ARE A GROUP OF REALISTIC
Category: Full-service
Overall rank: 28
Category: Creative
Overall rank: 29 OPTIMISTS WHOSE PHILOSOPHY
Cashmere is an award-winning lifestyle
marketing agency that utilizes social
Arts & Letters is a relatively new company, but one with
a collective entrepreneurial spirit and an empowered and IS SUMMED UP NOT BY ANY
media, creative strategy, experiential,
influencer marketing and public relations
open way of working that its clients have come to value.
The agency can quickly pivot to make the work better
PROPRIETARY PROCESS
strategies to provide full-service support
for campaigns and brands, and it excels
for its partners and the work environment better for its
employees. “We are a group of realistic optimists whose
BUT BY AN ATTITUDE OF
at connecting through community and
culture. With its proprietary Dope Data
philosophy is summed up not by any proprietary process
but by an attitude of ‘we’ll figure it out’—a phrase we
"WE’LL FIGURE IT OUT."'
Systems, Cashmere has the capability inscribed on the wall when we first opened our doors,” CHARLES HODGES, FOUNDER AND ECD
of identifying trends and quantifying its founder and ecd Charles Hodges tells Adweek. —K.O.
efforts for its clients. —K.C.

100+
Data Partners

ploy
and par
s
or all
15+
your suppor Media Platforms

/Y al.
10+
Research Tools

www
WOMEN-LED
AGENCIES
Women are
Burger King

1 WHTWRKS INC. Growth:

820%

increasingly better HQ: New York | Category: Full-service | Overall rank: 4

SEE
TOP 10
LIST
represented in
C-suites across the
country and globally
than they were just a
2 WE ARE ROSIE
HQ: Atlanta
SEE
TOP 10
LIST
5 TRENDS PARIS
HQ: Paris
few years ago. Women Growth: 556% Growth: 281%
Category: Flexible Category: Media
are also running some talent supplier Overall rank: 17
Overall rank: 7 With a commitment to developing digital
of the top shops in marketing, Trends Paris utilizes data to

3 DIGIBLE INC .
provide PR results for its clients. The agency
Adweek’s Fastest SEE
TOP 10
LIST
consistently anticipates new markets, and it
has landed over 30 new clients between 2020
Growing agencies, and HQ: Englewood, Colo. and 2021 as a result. For Trends Paris, “it’s
never about what the market can give, but
we hope this portion Growth: 460%
how it can be driven forward.” —K.C.
Category: Digital
of the list keeps Overall rank: 9

growing each year.

Here are the Fastest
4 BILLION DOLLAR BOY
Growing women-led
agencies.
HQ: London
Growth: 378%
Category: Creative
Overall rank: 11
Billion Dollar Boy is a global agency that
connects content creators with creative
brands to deliver influencer marketing
campaigns. The agency has produced
over 42,000 pieces of content, activated
campaigns across 48 countries and in more
than 17 languages and sees influencer
marketing as a discipline, not an add-on.
The main sources of the agency’s growth
have been new business, repeat business
and referrals. —K.C.
6 SOURCECODE
COMMUNICATIONS
HQ: New York
Growth: 224%
Category: Full-service
Overall rank: 20
SourceCode Communications brings
humanity to the forefront of all things PR
and communications. Its programs have
earned over 30 award nominations and wins
in just three years. And a testament to the
SourceCode experience is that its primary
source of growth has been referrals, even as
it continues to hold firm in representing its
first client, PCI Pal. —K.C.

28 OCTOBER 4, 2021 | ADWEEK ®

7 LOONEY
ADVERTISING
& BRANDING
HQ: Montclair, N.J.
Growth: 218%
Category: Full-service
Overall rank: 21
Leaving no industry underserved is a
hallmark of this burgeoning agency.
Looney serves clients across categories
including automotive, beauty, packaged
goods and retail. Since its inception, the
agency has maintained a media-agnostic
strategy that commits to the right
solution over being forced into a specific
direction of expertise, and it pivots
quickly to meet client needs. —K.C.
8 MARKETING
DOCTOR INC.
HQ: Northampton, Mass.
Growth: 186%
Category: Media
Overall rank: 23
According to Marketing Doctor, the
agency is “less about the jingles
and more about the metrics,” and a
commitment to continuous education,
ambition and responsiveness fuels
its success. Marketing Doctor’s
all-hands-on-deck approach and
responsiveness keep it agile and
adaptable, and it fosters strong
relationships with diverse agencies
that complement its services. —K.C.
9 DAGGER 10 ALPHA
HQ: Atlanta
Growth: 134%
Category: Full-service
BUSINESS
Overall rank: 31
Founded in 2015, Atlanta agency
Dagger focuses on making brands
IMAGES LLC
HQ: Dallas
culturally relevant in a consumer-
Growth: 121%
driven marketplace. It lives by the Category: Full-service
adage that brands must behave
Overall rank: 36
more like media companies and This Dallas agency believes
create and distribute content across
that cultivating greatness at
all forms of media to prosper. the individual level is one of the
Dagger started its own media
primary drivers of its rapid growth.
brand, @Butter.ATL, equipped Alpha focuses deeply in specific
with in-house content production
verticals—health care, education,
capabilities and offered free work transportation and nonprofits—and
to world-class brands during the
the agency was intentionally built
pandemic as an investment in its with diverse talent, so it has insight
relationships. —A.C. into all audience segments. —K.O.
MINORITY-LED
AGENCIES
As DEI officers
e.l.f.

are hired around

the industry, more
minorities are heading
1 MOVERS+SHAKERS Growth:
2,227%

SEE
HQ: Santa Monica, Calif. | Category: Creative | Overall rank: 1 TOP 10
LIST

up agencies, truly
making a difference.
Here are Adweek’s
Fastest Growing
2 WHTWRKS INC.
HQ: New York
SEE
TOP 10
LIST
5 CHICORY
HQ: New York | Growth: 332%
Growth: 820% Category: Digital
minority-led agencies, Category: Full-service Overall rank: 14
Overall rank: 4 Tech firm Chicory, a digital shopper marketing
which are effecting platform for CPG and grocery brands, looks to
change by weaving
3 NP DIGITAL
bring efficiency and transparency to grocery
SEE shopping. The agency partners with leading CPG
DEI into the fabric of TOP 10
LIST brands like Campbell’s and grocery retailers like
Wakefern Food Corp. to serve hyper-relevant ads
their companies. HQ: San Diego to consumers when they’re planning their grocery
Growth: 585% purchases. A pioneer of shoppable recipes,
Category: Digital Chicory creates digital tools, like contextual,
Overall rank: 6 in-recipe ad placements, to harness the power
of recipes to get brands in front of millions of

4 ADESIEM
shoppers and inspire them to buy. —K.O.
SEE

6 GROWTHBUSTER
TOP 10
LIST

HQ: Clayton, Mo.

Growth: 451%
HQ: Torrance, Calif. | Growth: 310%
Category: Digital
Category: Digital
Overall rank: 10
Overall rank: 15
Growthbuster provides a unique blend of marketing
that has developed some of the fastest-growing
companies in America, and its mission is to help
people, brands and products give the great legacy
companies a run for their money. Growthbuster relies
on referrals and its reputation for growth, and is
looking to become the go-to agency for businesses
that want to grow their apps’ user bases. —K.C.

30 OCTOBER 4, 2021 | ADWEEK ®

7 BORN & BRED
HQ: San Francisco
Growth: 297%
Category: Brand
Overall rank: 16
During the pandemic, brand agency
Born & Bred, which specializes in
launching and growing category
disruptors, prioritized its growth
efforts for industries, like fin tech,
cannabis, b-to-b software and DTC,
that were less impacted by the
pandemic than others. The consultancy
touts its value for venture-backed,
category-building challenger brands—
like Lumanu and Eaze—and has built its
business supporting them, which has
led to high retention rates. —K.C.
8 TRENDS PARIS
HQ: Paris
Growth: 281%
Category: Media
Overall rank: 17
With a commitment to developing
digital marketing, Trends Paris
utilizes data to provide PR results for
its clients. The agency consistently
anticipates new markets, and it has
landed over 30 new clients between
2020 and 2021 as a result. For
Trends Paris, “it’s never about what
the market can give, but how it can
be driven forward.” —K.C.
9 THINKINGBOX
HQ: Vancouver,
British Columbia, Canada
Growth: 255%
Category: Full-service
Overall rank: 18
Thinkingbox is a global collective
shaping the future of brands like
Adobe, Intuit, Riot Games and
Pinterest with a diverse team of
partners who blend business with
technology and creative storytelling.
Even though the pandemic proved to
be a fierce challenge, Thinkingbox
leaned on its core services, and
instead of layoffs, it tripled its staff
during 2020 and early 2021. —K.C.
10 CHEIL WORLDWIDE
HQ: New York
Growth: 211%
Category: Full-service
Overall rank: 22
Boasting 55 offices on six continents,
Cheil embodies the global agency
model with precision and versatility.
The agency boasts its speed to
market and adjusting to market
changes. Its primary growth has
come from fostering and enhancing
a long-standing partnership with
Samsung, with a recent focus on the
U.S. market. —K.C.

THANK
Thank you to each one of our clients. Let’s keep making great things together.
It’s an honor to have earned your trust. Isaac & Mike

YOU
Thank you to our amazing team: Get in touch @ thisispattern.com
Johanna, Erica, Jenny, Sarah, Landon,
Lola and Vince. You make us what we are
and we wouldn’t be here without you.
 INTERNATIONAL AGENCIES
2 SITEPARTNERS
Adweek’s readers are all over the globe,
and as the agency world continues to
become more global, shops are continuing HQ: Surrey,
British Columbia, Canada
to grow in every region, from Europe to Growth: 357%
South America, Asia and beyond. Here Category: Full-service
Overall rank: 12
are the Fastest Growing international As a firm with an exclusive focus
on the industrial sector, including
agencies by percent change in revenue. construction, manufacturing,
green energy and resources,
SitePartners provides expertise
and insight into its strategic and
creative work. Its specialized
approach has allowed it to
generate strong brand awareness
and helped it win multiple new
major industrial clients across
Canada, in addition to project
4 TRENDS PARIS
HQ: Paris
Growth: 281%
Category: Media
Overall rank: 17
With a commitment to developing
digital marketing, Trends Paris
utilizes data to provide PR
results for its clients. The agency
consistently anticipates new
markets, and it has landed over
30 new clients between 2020 and
2021 as a result. For Trends Paris,
“it’s never about what the market
can give, but how it can be driven
forward.” —K.C.

5 WHALAR
expansion. —K.C.

3 PHITURE
HQ: Berlin
HQ: New York
Growth: 165%
Category: Social media/
influencer
Growth: 346% Overall rank: 27
Category: Digital Whalar is driven by tech to leverage
Overall rank: 13 influencers and data. As Covid-19
Phiture is a mobile growth transformed the market’s focus,
consultancy that uses cutting- Whalar pushed new ways of

1 WE ARE ROSIE Growth:

556%
edge analytics and deep domain
expertise to help its clients grow
their mobile apps. Aiming to
be leaders in mobile growth in
production and took advantage
of growth generators like TikTok.
The agency leans into connectivity
over promotions and has won two
HQ: Atlanta particular, the agency provides Cannes Lions. —K.C.
Category: Flexible talent supplier App Store optimization, retention
Overall rank: 7 and CRM, and a host of premium
We Are Rosie was founded by Stephanie Nadi Olson in 2018 with services to help its clients establish
a mission of supporting its people while providing a workplace competencies they can eventually
that treats everyone with dignity and access to opportunity. It is take on themselves. —K.C.
a flexible talent platform that pairs Fortune 500 brands and their
agencies with independent marketing talent, who can be hired for
numerous projects. Whaler, The Crib
“I determined I wanted to dedicate my life to supporting people Around The Corner
who are marginalized by the rigid systems of work,” Olson, one of
Adweek’s Women Trailblazers, told Adweek earlier this year.
The agency noted that it saw thousands of highly skilled
marketers opt out of the traditional way of working—most of them
from marginalized, underrepresented or underserved groups. So, it
created a viable way for them to work on terms that work for them,
and for brands to access that trove of talent efficiently.
We Are Rosie is now a thriving community of over 7,500 diverse
and highly skilled independent marketers, helping companies
like Bumble, Facebook and IBM maximize their agility, resilience,
inclusion and creativity. New major enterprise client wins for We
Are Rosie include Microsoft, Facebook, Diageo and IHG. —K.O.

32 OCTOBER 4, 2021 | ADWEEK ®

 SOUTHEAST AGENCIES
3 THREESIXTYEIGHT
The Southeast continues to grow,
and with that growth comes more
prominent agencies in the region. HQ: Baton Rouge, La. | Growth: 123% | Category: Full-service | Overall rank: 34
ThreeSixtyEight is a full-service creative agency that operates Big Fish
From Richmond to Atlanta and Baton Presentations, a service line that creates professional presentations and
Rouge, the agencies on this list are speaker training. The division has been instrumental in the agency’s growth,
and it boasts clients including Century Link, Rakuten, Louisiana Economic
helping bring more prominence to the Development and the Louisiana Department of Health. —A.C.
area. Here are the Fastest Growing
agencies in the Southeast. ThreeSixtyEight
Ochsner Innovation Hub

Growth:
144%

1 ARTS & LETTERS CREATIVE CO.

HQ: Richmond, Va. | Category: Creative | Overall rank: 29
Arts & Letters is a relatively new company, but one with a collective
entrepreneurial spirit and an empowered and open way of working that
its clients have come to value. The agency can quickly pivot to make
the work better for its partners and the work environment better for its
employees. “We are a group of realistic optimists whose philosophy is
summed up not by any proprietary process but by an attitude of ‘we’ll
figure it out’—a phrase we inscribed on the wall when we first opened
our doors,” founder and ecd Charles Hodges tells Adweek. —K.O.

2 DAGGER
HQ: Atlanta | Growth: 134% | Category: Full-service | Overall rank: 31
Founded in 2015, Atlanta agency Dagger focuses on making brands
culturally relevant in a consumer-driven marketplace. It lives by the
4 NIMBUS INC.
HQ: Louisville, Ky.
adage that brands must behave more like media companies and create
and distribute content across all forms of media to prosper. Dagger Growth: 109%
started its own media brand, @Butter.ATL, equipped with in-house Category: Full-service
content production capabilities and offered free work to world-class Overall rank: 42
brands during the pandemic as an investment in its relationships. —A.C. Nimbus Inc.—a strategic
marketing and communications
agency owned by a Black husband
and wife team—captures,
@Butter.ATL communicates and connects
brands with diverse consumers
who have been historically
ignored. “Nimbus’ growth is tied
to our ability to provide value
that’s rooted in who we are as
individuals and by bringing those
diverse, individual backgrounds
into the work, authentically,” says
a company spokesperson. —A.C.
5 BELLWOOD LABS
HQ: Atlanta
Growth: 101%
Category: Digital
Overall rank: 43
Bellwood Labs helps businesses of
all sizes build and scale software
products. As the market for
custom software explodes, the
agency attributes its growth to
three primary avenues: reputation,
referrals and web directories and
reviews. “A fast-growing agency
cannot exist without a ‘service-
market fit’—the industry must
authentically need the services,
in a big way that is not being well-
served,” according to a company
spokesperson. —A.C.

34 OCTOBER 4, 2021 | ADWEEK ®

Work-life
balance got
us here.
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Thank you to our incredibly talented teams for making us the clear
leader in performance marketing and to our clients for understanding
that a supportive environment is the way to achieve outsized growth.

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 WEST / SOUTHWEST
2 DIGIBLE INC .
Agencies in the thriving West and
Southwest regions are gaining more
national attention. The shops in this HQ: Englewood, Colo.
Growth: 460%
wide swath of land span from the Category: Digital
shores of California to the Rocky Overall rank: 9
As the CEO of Digible, a Denver-
Mountains of Colorado and the big cities based agency that specializes
in multifamily and apartment
of Texas. Here are the Fastest Growing marketing, Reid Wicoff wants to
agencies in the West and Southwest. embrace industry innovation while
ensuring every employee is aware
of their value. Since founding the
company in 2017, Wicoff has hired
53 full-time employees and over
the past three years, revenue has
Colgate-Palmolive grown 460%. He attributes that
Hum IoT-enabled growth to Digible’s supportive
toothbrush work environment, which he says
facilitates a feeling of job security.
According to Wicoff, “Will I
be left behind?” is a common
sentiment among marketing
professionals as technology
continues to develop, which is why
he remains determined to craft a
people-first culture.
“We need to make sure people
1 AMASA
are developed properly in the
Growth: industry and know they have
541%
value,” he says. “That culture
is a big part of why people love
working here. In 10 years from
HQ: San Diego | Category: Digital | Overall rank: 8 now, you’ll see the same faces.”
To cut its customer acquisition costs on Facebook, Colgate-Palmolive Wicoff stressed that helping
turned to Amasa to drive down costs for its Hum IoT-enabled marketers take pride in their work is
toothbrush. Within a few weeks, Amasa had cut that cost in half, says a crucial part of employee retention.
CEO Alex Brown. That success led to working on more services like As the company continues to
CRM and media buying across Facebook, Snapchat and TikTok. develop, he is most focused
“We pride ourselves on being, in addition to a performance on maintaining that supportive
marketing agency, a very full-funnel agency,” Brown says, adding camaraderie while embracing
the agency dives into its clients’ entire business. “We just really technological innovation.
want to understand the entire user experience and the entire “We work for each other and
customer journey from end to end.” not for ourselves, and people are
According to Brown, the agency, which has grown revenue 541% encouraged to be super curious,”
over the past three years, works with clients that spend at least he says. “That’s a big part of
$50,000 on media each year, but also has an incubator program what drives innovation and better
for fledgling ecommerce businesses that can’t hit that threshold. strategy.” —E.L.
Brown says the program, a 12-week boot camp that provides
deliverables including a comprehensive analysis of the client’s
business and recommendations on media buying, helps distinguish
Amasa from its competitors.
Currently, the San Diego-based agency has about 30
employees, but Brown hopes to reach 50 in 2022 to support the
shop’s exponential growth. —J.F.
36
3 GROWTHBUSTER
HQ: Torrance, Calif.
Growth: 310%
Category: Digital
Overall rank: 15
Growthbuster provides a unique
blend of marketing that has
developed some of the fastest-
growing companies in America, and
its mission is to help people, brands
and products give the great legacy
companies a run for their money.
Growthbuster relies on referrals
and its reputation for growth, and is
looking to become the go-to agency
for businesses that want to grow
their apps’ user bases. —K.C.
4 BORN & BRED
HQ: San Francisco
Growth: 297%
Category: Brand
Overall rank: 16
During the pandemic, brand
agency Born & Bred, which
specializes in launching and
growing category disruptors,
prioritized its growth efforts
for industries, like fin tech,
cannabis, b-to-b software and
DTC, that were less impacted
by the pandemic than others.
The consultancy touts its value
for venture-backed, category-
building challenger brands—like
Lumanu and Eaze—and has built
its business supporting them,
which has led to high retention
rates. —K.C.
OCTOBER 4, 2021 | ADWEEK ®
AGENCIES
Born & Bred
5 PATTERN
HQ: Albany, Calif.
Growth: 230%
Category: Digital
Overall rank: 19
Pattern’s core principle is that design
is “the most powerful differentiator,”
and the agency uses that to craft
digital experiences that help define
its clients. Pattern uses its expertise
to guide founders, disruptors and
creators through the experience
economy. With over 30 awards to
its credit, Pattern is “willing to live
and die on the quality of work” and
attributes its growth to word-of-
mouth and reputation. —K.C.
6 ALPHA BUSINESS
IMAGES LLC
HQ: Dallas
Growth: 121%
Category: Full-service
Overall rank: 36
This Dallas agency believes
that cultivating greatness at
the individual level is one of the
primary drivers of its rapid growth.
Alpha focuses deeply in specific
verticals—health care, education,
transportation and nonprofits—and
the agency was intentionally built
with diverse talent, so it has insight
into all audience segments. —K.O.
 NORTHEAST AGENCIES
Even as other regions boast great
agencies, New York is still home to 2 SOURCECODE
some of the world’s top shops. There
are also plenty of great shops all over COMMUNICATIONS
HQ: New York | Growth: 224%
the Northeast, from New Jersey to Category: Full-service
Overall rank: 20
New England. Here are the top Fastest SourceCode Communications brings
Growing agencies in the Northeast by humanity to the forefront of all things
PR and communications. Its programs
percent change in revenue. have earned over 30 award nominations
and wins in just three years. And
a testament to the SourceCode
experience is that its primary source of
growth has been referrals, even as it
continues to hold firm in representing
its first client, PCI Pal. —K.C.
3 LOONEY ADVERTISING
& BRANDING
HQ: Montclair, N.J. | Growth: 218%
Category: Full-service
Chicory’s shoppable
recipe tech Overall rank: 21
Leaving no industry underserved
is a hallmark of this burgeoning
agency. Looney serves clients across
categories including automotive,
1 CHICORY beauty, packaged goods and retail.
Growth: Since its inception, the agency has
322% maintained a media-agnostic strategy
that commits to the right solution over
HQ: New York being forced into a specific direction of
Category: Digital expertise, and it pivots quickly to meet
Overall rank: 14 client needs. —K.C.
Tech firm Chicory, a digital shopper marketing platform for CPG
and grocery brands, looks to bring efficiency and transparency to
grocery shopping. The agency partners with leading CPG brands
like Campbell’s and grocery retailers like Wakefern Food Corp.
to serve hyper-relevant ads to consumers when they’re planning
their grocery purchases. A pioneer of shoppable recipes, Chicory
creates digital tools, like contextual, in-recipe ad placements, to
harness the power of recipes to get brands in front of millions of
shoppers and inspire them to buy. —K.O.
38
4 MARKETING
DOCTOR INC.
HQ: Northampton, Mass.
Growth: 186%
Category: Media
Overall rank: 23
According to Marketing Doctor,
the agency is “less about the
jingles and more about the
metrics,” and a commitment to
continuous education, ambition and
responsiveness fuels its success.
Marketing Doctor’s all-hands-on-
deck approach and responsiveness
keep it agile and adaptable, and it
fosters strong relationships with
diverse agencies that complement
its services. —K.C.
5 829 STUDIOS
HQ: Boston
Growth: 132%
Category: Digital
Overall rank: 32
Since 2007, 829 Studios has crafted
integrated marketing solutions
with a focus on collaboration and
innovation. After years of continued
growth, mainly fueled by word-of-
mouth and referrals, 829 Studios
added new service offerings in the
past year, including PR and account-
based marketing, that have propelled
829 Studios even further. —A.C.
829 Studios
OCTOBER 4, 2021 | ADWEEK ®
MIDWEST AGENCIES
The Midwest is known for its hard-
working roots, but over the past few
years, the region has also made a mark
for its creativity and innovation. Here
are the Fastest Growing agencies in the
Midwest by percent change in revenue.
2 DRIVE SOCIAL MEDIA
HQ: St. Louis
Growth: 118%
Category: Full-service
Overall rank: 38
Drive focuses most of its efforts on
driving trackable ROI for its partners.
The agency has developed a proprietary
tracking platform called Marketing Milk
that allows clients to log in remotely to
view real-time reports on the ROI and
3 THE BASEMENT
HQ: Indianapolis
Growth: 61%
Category: Full-service
Overall rank: 61
Full-service agency The Basement
started as an interactive studio in 2008
with a focus on animation, gaming
and website builds. These days, the
company guides clients through brand
strategy, UX/UI design, media planning,

1 ADESIEM
HQ: Clayton, Mo.
Growth:
451%
RoAS of their social media campaigns.
This focused approach is helping
accelerate the company’s growth. —A.C.
analytics and more. In the past few
years, The Basement has grown by
diversifying into the education and
health care industries. —C.W.
SEE
Category: Digital TOP 10
LIST
Overall rank: 10
Perspective
ON THE ORIGINS OF BR ANDS AND THE PEOPLE WHO BUILD THEM

THE STAGE
Wegmans is known for its
European marketplace feel,
accomplished with high
ceilings, theatrical lighting
and mountains of food.

THE GOODS
The store sells
everything from
literal soup to nuts,
though its produce—
often sourced from
area farms—is a big
part of the draw.

Wegmans «

THE PRICES HOW A FAMILY VEGETABLE

While shoppers reared
on Whole Foods Market
are used to paying a
lot, Wegmans makes
‘consistent low prices’
part of its pledge.
CART IN ROCHESTER, N.Y.,
GAVE RISE TO GENERATIONS
OF ‘WEGMANIACS.’
BY ROBERT KLARA
 Oct. 27, 2019, was a rainy Thursday in
Brooklyn. Despite the chill and gloom,
however, crowds began assembling
before daybreak. Some had risen at 5:30
a.m. for a place in line. Some had driven
from as far away as the Bronx.
One might think these were fans lining
up to see the Black Keys or Bon Iver at
the Barclays Center. But no—they were
lining up to shop at a grocery store.
In this case, the name will explain
a lot. It was Wegmans, which cut the
ribbon that morning on its first store in
New York City. And on that line to get
inside were hundreds of people who were
already referring to themselves, without
1 2
irony, as “Wegmaniacs.”
It’s not unusual for brands to enjoy
cult followings. Let us recall that every
new iteration of Apple’s iPhone once led 3
to block-long lines. But why would anyone
go gaga over a grocery store? There’s no
single answer to that question, but fans
and analysts point to several factors.
Thanks to Wegmans’ generous 4
benefits packages, the employees
are actually friendly and motivated.
Wegmans is also famed for its reasonable
prices and its large selection, with
upward of 70,000 items compared to
40,000 at most supermarkets. HORN OF PLENTY
But as Phil “The Supermarket Guru” John Wegman and
Lempert observes, “A lot of retailers his brother Walter (1)
carry the same stuff [as Wegmans began selling fruits
does]—some more expensive, some and vegetables from
less. But the point of it is that [chairman] a pushcart (2) before
Danny and [daughter and CEO] Colleen opening a store in 1916.
[Wegman] have gone out of their way to By the 1930s, Wegmans
make that experience for shoppers the stores were staples in
best possible, and that’s why they have and around Rochester,
this cult following.” N.Y. (3) Walter’s son
5 6
Indeed, long before consultants Robert Wegman, shown
coined the term “retailtainment,” in this high school photo
Wegmans was already doing it. By (4), would go on to make
capturing the atmosphere of the open- his family’s store into
air European food market then adding a regional powerhouse
store-within-a-store amenities like flower in the post-war years,
shops, bakeries and sit-down restaurants, adding amenities like an
Wegmans is as much of a leisure in-store delicatessen (5).
destination as a grocery store. Today, Wegmans’ system
And that’s ambitious stuff, includes ‘smaller’ stores
considering that John and Walter of 70,000 square feet
Wegman started out with a produce for urban markets like
cart before opening the Rochester Fruit Chestnut Hill, Mass. (6)
& Vegetable Company in 1916. It was
Walter’s son Robert Wegman who’d
create the template for the Wegmans ROBERT’S RULES In 1967, Robert Wegman was preparing
we know today: well-paid employees and a talk he’d be giving at food industry conference in Thailand.
cautious expansion over the slash-and- Executives, as we know, give forgettable speeches every day
burn tactics of his competitors. of the week. But Wegman’s opus—later to be known as his
It’s an approach that Robert Wegman’s “I am a merchant” speech—was different. It’s still quoted by
children and grandchildren still follow,
COURTESY OF WEGMANS

some employees, and constitutes the corporate ethos for

and with $10.8 billion in sales from 106
stores last year, it’s one that has proven
its worth. “Wegmans is like a gold medal
decathlete within the grocery sector,” said
Bruce Winder, author of the recent book
Retail Before, During & After Covid-19.
“They are great at a lot of things.”
Wegmans to this day. “I am a merchant,” Wegman wrote, “and
I have therefore my own philosophy about merchandising:
That is, to do something that no one else is doing, and to be
able to offer the customer a choice she doesn’t have at the
moment. This is the only reason for being in business.”

ADWEEK | OCTOBER 4, 2021

®
41
 LOOK BACK

1971

It’s a
Schmaltz
World
After All
Back in the days of three-
network TV, few shows
enjoyed as illustrious a
reign as Sunday night’s
The Wonderful World of
Disney. And there was no
episode quite like the one
that aired 50 years ago this
month, when Julie Andrews
gave a song-filled tour of a
new attraction in Orlando,
Fla., called Disney World.
With 1964’s Mary Poppins
still fresh in the public’s
memory, Andrews was a
familiar and welcome face.
Yet even her prodigious
singing and dancing talents
could not rescue the hour
from drowning in a sea
of corny skits (Jonathan
Winters going camping
with his wife, Margaret) and
thinly veiled plugs (Glen
Campbell announcing—golly
gee whiz—“Walt Disney
World is twice as big as the
island of Manhattan.”) This
show was, after all, just one
big commercial for Disney
World—or, as Andrews
read from her script, “a
commitment to the future
for your children and mine.”
—Robert Klara
NBC/NBCU PHOTO BANK

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