Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
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.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
Wpromote challenges every client to think like a challenger—even century-old Whirlpool, which the agency is helping 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 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
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
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 education-technology 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 on reevaluating the nonprofit’s media approach to increase donations at the lowest possible cost.
KLIK helped United Way boost its donations with a TikTok campaign starring Seattle Seahawks’ quarterback Russell Wilson. The agency also helped the nonprofit 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% decrease 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
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
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.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
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 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.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
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.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
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 fully remote 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 9,000 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.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
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 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.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
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%. 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.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
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.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
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
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
As a firm with an exclusive focus on the industrial sector, including 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 expansion. —K.C.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
Phiture is a mobile growth consultancy that uses cutting-edge analytics and deep domain 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 premium services to help its clients establish competencies they can eventually take on themselves. —K.C.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
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.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
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.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
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.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
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.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
Thinkingbox is a global creative collective shaping the future of brands like Adobe, Intuit, Riot Games and Pinterest with a diverse team that blends 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.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
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.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
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.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
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.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
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.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
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.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
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.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
Oliver’s “inside-out” focus for its clients has fueled growth since its 2004 founding. Having created more than 300 built-for-purpose agencies, Oliver’s priority is a “shared roof” perspective, which enables it to operate with 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.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
Hylink is one of the largest independent advertising agencies in the world and has been for the past 10 years. Very rarely using outside contracting, Hylink benefits from being fully integrated, with multiple practices, all of which are in-house. Hylink successfully emulates pure performance models from Asia to increase the quality of its output. —K.C.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
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.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
Cashmere is an award-winning lifestyle marketing agency that utilizes social media, creative strategy, experiential, influencer marketing and public relations strategies to provide full-service support for campaigns and brands, and it excels at connecting through community and culture. With its proprietary Dope Data Systems, Cashmere has the capability of identifying trends and quantifying its efforts for its clients. —K.C.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
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.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
Influencer marketing agency Viral Nation is a group of entrepreneurs, former global agency leaders and talent agents focused on making decisions at the “speed of culture” to create viral and ROI-focused media influencer campaigns. The agency has experienced exponential growth driven by onboarding new clients into influencer marketing and organically growing current clients by offering paid media and content production. — Alexandra Carter
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
Founded in 2015, Atlanta agency Dagger focuses on making brands culturally relevant in a consumer-driven marketplace. It lives by the adage that brands must behave more like media companies and create and distribute content across all forms of media to prosper. Dagger started its own media brand, @Butter.ATL, equipped with in-house content production capabilities and offered free work to world-class brands during the pandemic as an investment in its relationships. —A.C.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
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.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
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.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
ThreeSixtyEight is a full-service creative agency that operates Big Fish Presentations, a service line that creates professional presentations and speaker training. The division has been instrumental in the agency’s growth, and it boasts clients including Century Link, Rakuten, Louisiana Economic Development and the Louisiana Department of Health. —A.C.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
When Growth Marketing Systems launched, it only offered Facebook advertising services. The agency has since grown to include a wide array of social media advertising. A pivot in 2020 to a specialization in digital brands has been instrumental in GMS’ growth. The agency has also continued to expand its existing portfolios and has introduced strategic partnerships with complementary agencies and suppliers. —A.C.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
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.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
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.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
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 RoAS of their social media campaigns. This focused approach is helping accelerate the company’s growth. —A.C.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
Constellation is a hybrid marketing/SaaS company offering tech-enabled digital marketing and creative services. Constellation’s client roster includes major OEMs such as BMW, Jaguar, Land Rover and Volkswagen. The agency has earned several distinctions for its rapid growth and has doubled the size of its workforce in the past year alone. —A.C.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
Hathway is a digital growth company that offers omnichannel loyalty strategy capabilities via three solution areas: CX consulting, digital product development and growth marketing. The pandemic accelerated the need for Hathway’s services as customer needs evolved rapidly, and as a result, the company has experienced significant growth over the past year. —A.C.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
When the pandemic hit and ecommerce became the top priority overnight, ecommerce growth agency Blue Wheel was uniquely equipped to tackle the shift and help clients navigate the journey. The agency had been planning a shift to ecommerce for years; it just came sooner than anticipated. Blue Wheel doubled in size over the past year thanks to its explosive growth and foresight. —A.C.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
Nimbus Inc.—a strategic marketing and communications agency owned by a Black husband and wife team—captures, 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.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
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.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
Tech-driven digital reputation management company Five Blocks analyzes brands’ internet presences to map out more accurate, intentional and strategic online reputations for its clients. While some of Five Blocks’ growth is from referrals, its primary growth driver is the quality of the relationships it builds, which it calls its “secret sauce.” —A.C.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
Journey Further is a performance marketing agency specializing in paid media, organic search, conversion optimization and creative. Key clients include Sky, Sports Direct, Virgin Money, Liberty London, WorldFirst and Majestic Wine. Journey Further cites effective marketing and sales engines and a powerful culture to attract and retain the best talent as factors that propelled its growth. —A.C.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
William Thomas Digital is an omnichannel digital messaging and CRM agency that creates relationships through deeply personalized experiences. Clients include Lindt, Shopify, Salesforce and Rogers. A large part of William Thomas Digital’s growth has been driven by referrals and clients seeking out the team’s specialized services. —A.C.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
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.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
The Variable is a business growth company that combines innovation and advertising. The Variable attributes its rapid growth to strong AOR relationships with clients like P&G, Nestlé, Electrolux, Miracle-Gro and Char-Broil. Another factor contributing to its growth has been offering additional services, like innovation strategy, to its clients. —A.C.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
Humanaut is an independent project-based agency and production studio that develops creative brand platforms, advertising campaigns and video content for emerging brands. Humanaut harnesses low costs of production to house the entire lifecycle of all projects on its reel, from strategy, creative and scripts to development, production and editing. —Cat Weaver
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
Since its inception in 2016, digitalfarm has grown a 120-plus portfolio of accounts, ranging from small businesses to global brands and government entities. This is thanks to a strategy of pairing affordability and social awareness with scalable packages, investments in corporate social responsibility (CSR), and a small and medium enterprise (SME) wing focused on supporting small businesses in the region. —C.W.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
PMG is a global independent digital agency with a roster of clients including Apple, Athleta, Beats by Dre, Glossier, McDonald’s, Old Navy, 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 accolades from Cannes Lions, Deloitte Inc. and Entrepreneur, and has a more than 90% client retention rate. —C.W.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
Marketing agency Glow creates and produces campaigns for media companies including WarnerMedia, Showtime, Spotify, Nickelodeon, YouTube and Hulu. Over the past year, its portfolio increased by 10%, with the addition of the NBA and the launch of Glow’s health and wellness group. Glow expects to see a 65% growth in revenue over the next two years. —C.W.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
Creative platform and incubator Flock Creative Network (FCN) dubs itself a “one-stop communications team,” offering a broad suite of creative services. The agency credits its speedy ascent to a reputation for nimble response and a willingness to build out capabilities to suit individual client requests. FCN even responded to one client’s request for video production by creating its own in-house production studio. —C.W.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
Imre offers an integrated suite of marketing and communications services ranging from creative to PR and analytics. Those at the company say they are “turning consumers into brand believers” and are proud to “orchestrate” that belief for a diverse and growing portfolio, including Airstream, AstraZeneca, Dickies, John Deere, GSK, the NFL, Pfizer, Stihl and Infiniti. —C.W.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
Boasting scalability and innovative bespoke pricing contracts, Good Apple accommodates clients of all sizes. Launched in 2007, the boutique media agency has since managed over $200 million worth of media for startups like Birchbox and Bonobos, luxury retailer Moda Operandi and various Fortune 500 companies. The agency also does pro bono work for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. —C.W.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
Marketing agency SmartBug Media provides a full suite of services—mostly digital—to health care, technology, manufacturing, senior living and professional services companies. The shop attributes its swift growth to being its “own best case study”—SmartBug Media uses the same strategies for its own marketing as it does for its clients. —C.W.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
Coegi provides managed digital advertising, strategy and analytics services for agency partners and in-house brand marketing teams. The agency has experienced double-digit year-over-year growth since its 2014 founding, a feat it attributes in part to agency partnerships and brand-direct relationships, but mainly to its proprietary technology products that bolster brand safety and programmatic performance. —C.W.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
Digital Hyve is a full-service digital marketing agency. Featured in the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest growing private companies in America four years in a row, the company was acquired in 2021 by Butler/Till. The combined agencies now comprise one of the largest independent marketing and media agencies in the country. —C.W.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
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.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
Pavone creates consumer and business-to-business marketing campaigns for clients in financial services, health care, government, entertainment and retail. With offices in Harrisburg and Philadelphia, the agency, which uses acquisitions to bolster service line offerings, covers traditional and digital advertising and marketing, branding, social media, public relations, media planning, research and product innovation strategy. —C.W.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
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, analytics and more. In the past few years, The Basement has grown by diversifying into the education and health care industries. —C.W.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
Hybrid Marketing Co bills itself as the largest cannabis-focused agency in North America, providing branding, marketing and a broad range of creative services to the entire cannabis industry including dispensaries, cultivators, ancillary businesses, b-to-b and b-to-c. The agency likes to “work backwards,” starting with the client’s business goals and reverse-engineering marketing strategies that fit them. —C.W.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
Digital marketing agency The SEO Works takes pride in its own strong visibility and invests in proactive business development to help it grow. It is a certified Google Partner for SEO and PPC (Google Ads) as well as part of the exclusive Google elevator program, which focuses on helping SMEs. —C.W.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
Strategic digital consulting agency January Digital racked up key accounts in 2021 with Canidae, Rhone, Tailored, Marolina and Sol de Janeiro. Other recent wins include Vince Camuto, The Sak, Juvenescence and Jenny Craig. Its growth comes from its consulting practice, which it expects to grow more than 100% year over year, while its agency partnerships also continue to thrive. —C.W.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
United Media Services is a full-service media agency in Bucharest, Romania, covering the Central and Eastern European region. In 2020 and 2021 the nascent company won the accounts of OPPO, Allianz Vivre and Secom. The agency’s omnichannel expertise allows it to cover a range of services, from one-channel strategy to through-the-line communication campaigns.—C.W.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
In 2019, following Elite SEM’s 2017 acquisition of OrionCKB, and its acquisitions of CPC Strategy and Email Aptitude the following year, newly rebranded Tinuiti became the largest independent performance marketing firm in the U.S. across Google, Facebook and Amazon. With expertise in search, social, mobile apps, CRM and email marketing, Tinuiti wields a proprietary suite of marketing intelligence and media activation technology called Mobius. —C.W.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
Fortnight Collective is a brand marketing accelerator that promises to help brands “be better faster” through its BrandHacks. In the past year, the young company has seen a 40% increase in its number of projects as new client revenue increased from 22% to 35% with the addition of CrossFit, Vrbo, Peet’s Coffee and Noodles & Company. —C.W.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
P3 Media is a full-service, data-first marketing agency that accelerates growth for high-volume businesses and Fortune 500 companies. The agency utilizes channel partnerships with Shopify and BigCommerce. As more brands have prioritized digital transformation over the past two years, P3 Media has seen funnel expansion driven primarily by increased demand from replatforming and first-time-online businesses. —C.W.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
Fig is a fully integrated media and creative agency that covers brand-building, engagement-driving and performance media planning, buying and trafficking—all in-house, allowing for some swift pivots during the pandemic. FIG’s recent account wins include premium pet food brand Stella & Chewy’s, CPG brand Simple Mills, online ticketing platform SeatGeek, MoMA and Major League Baseball. —C.W.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
New Engen is a digital marketing agency that tags its effort as “the business of breakthroughs.” The agency attributes its swift growth to referrals, with 88% of new clientele coming from the word-of-mouth and first-person testimonials of satisfied clients who have themselves achieved massive growth as a result of their partnerships with New Engen. —C.W.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
FlyteVu is a full-service entertainment marketing agency that “connects brands to consumers via the power of pop culture and purpose.” Its clients include the American Red Cross, Barefoot Wine, Carter’s, Clean Cause, Cracker Barrel, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Jack Daniel’s, Looped and Norwegian Cruise Line. FlyteVu’s campaigns have earned three gold and two bronze Clio Awards, an Emmy and a Grammy. —C.W.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
Walker Sands is a full-service b-to-b marketing company. The firm’s integrated approach to marketing drives awareness, credibility and conversions for 100-plus clients around the world. An eight-time Inc. 5000 honoree, Walker Sands is one of the fastest-growing b-to-b marketing agencies, with offices in Chicago, San Francisco and Seattle. —C.W.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
CMI Media Group is a media agency that aims to elevate health conversations. Although the agency’s roster is confidential, it reports that 2020 brought in clients leading in biotechnology, biosciences and pharmaceuticals, plus partnerships with major technology innovators. It attributes its growth to its Own the Audience partnership program and PROACT, a marketing automation program. —C.W.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
In 2012, the founders of Reach set out to create a new kind of agency that focused on creating brand stories that people were compelled to watch, share, and engage with. Since then, the agency and its client roster have more than doubled in size. Reach Agency’s client list includes Clorox, Google, Nestlé and Marriott. —A.C.
Rank
Name
Industry
Location
Growth
Size
–
Brunet-García is a national social impact marketing communications firm focused on improving health and safety, benefiting the arts and increasing cross-cultural education and outreach. In recent years, the company has seen a 413% increase in revenue. The agency achieved growth by aligning its business goals with national priorities. —A.C.