Dear Leader. Art credit: Ad Age
Everyone has an end-of-year list. Not to be outdone, and because we’re being lazy this time of year (let’s be honest), AgencySpy is offering up our top 20 posts of the year leading into 2020. The best-of-the-best came from each member of the team and covered a wide range of things happening in the agency world.
And we’d be remiss if we didn’t recognize the massive contributions of Patrick Coffee (now emeritus status), who some of us miss dearly. Not only are we honoring him with a colorful montage at the top of this post (thanks, Ad Age for the design inspiration! 👋), but listing a few of his gems below.
According to a Forrester study, 83.1% of all posts that are featured on a site like this results in a 1.3x lift in affinity. Additionally, 73% of people (out of 2,100 surveyed) found these lists can help assess their own understanding of the agency world*.
Like any year, there was some good, and there was some really tough stuff. And, though the agency world is in the midst of some significant changes, we are hopeful that 2020 brings a renewed sense of understanding about how vital agencies are in the ever-changing firmament (one of Jeff Goodby’s favorite words) of marketing.
We hope that this post finds you hydrated, and we wish you all a wonderful holiday and the most prosperous 2020.
*None of this is true. We made it up to sound smarter.
#1: That Google Spreadsheet of agency salaries. Gulp.
#2: Tattooing an agency’s logo on your forehead to get an internship is… interesting? Here’s the follow-up.
#3: The initial results of that Google Spreadsheet of agency salaries.
#4: Advertising Week’s wrap party had, um, some issues?
#5: Post-McDonald’s win, Wieden + Kennedy pulled out the salt shaker.
#6: WorkInProgess work for Jimmy John’s tweaked the noses of Grubhub, Uber Eats and Doordash.
#7: Huge with 5 new creative leads. With a fancy montage photo.
#8: The Burger King/Andy Warhol Super Bowl spot was confusing to people.
#9: Uncle Leo had to lay some people off pre-Epsilon.
#10: Harley-Davidson was looking for a creative agency. They hired Droga5.
#11: Speaking of Droga, the agency’s former CCO Ted Royer resurfaced in Vegas.
#12: Publicis.Sapient “staffing realignment.”
#13: Publicis.Sapient named a new CEO and bounced the Razorfish brand.
#14: Anomaly New York’s meeting space names were under fire.
#15: Publicis.Sapient (again). This time, the CEO made an ill-advised reference to Harriet Tubman.
#16: Gary Fucking Veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
#17: Lady Brienne of Tarth: Rolls Royce Spokesperson.
#18: Uncle Leo laid more people off as it moved away from smokes.
#19: Jeff Benjamin left Barton F. Graf (long live Barton F. Graf). He landed at Tombras in the new Boulder.
#20: MDC’s former CEO, Miles Nadal, spent over $800,000 for new sneakers. Eek.