Agency Digs
Ad Age looks inside the newest, nicest and quirkiest lairs in adland
Special: Small Agency Awards
Small Agency of the Year, Gold: Via
Even Via CEO and founder John Coleman is a bit in awe of what has happened with his agency over the past few years.
Small Agency of the Year, Silver: Johannes Leonardo
Meet the new darling of the New York creative scene: Johannes Leonardo. The New York-based agency is still a small shop, but it's gaining an outsize reputation for cutting-edge work.
Small Agency of the Year, Campaign of the Year, Gold: 'Burt's Bees: Find Your Burt'
What to do when you're an all-natural-products company in a sea of faux-natural companies? If you're Burt's Bees and your agency is Baldwin&, you make sure nobody will ever mistake you for anything less than authentic ever again.
Small Agency of the Year, Campaign of the Year, Silver: 'One Weekend off'
A campaign by 6-year-old local agency Mortierbrigade challenged Belgians to survive the entire holiday weekend without telephones, TVs or computers.
Small Agency of the Year, International Agency, Gold: Buzzman
Buzzman's "A Hunter Shoots a Bear" for Tipp-ex Pocket Mouse was watched 30 million times on YouTube, shared by 350,000 people on Facebook, and clocked up one tweet every second for the first three days of the campaign.
Small Agency of the Year, Best Culture, Gold: Modea
When not enjoying chili cook-offs and potato-sack races, "Mad Men" parties, Thanksgiving turkeys and pinatas, Modea staffers devote personal time to improving the lives of others.
Small Agency of the Year, 76-150 Employees, Gold: David & Goliath
While Universal Studios Hollywood's engineers created a bigger-than-life King Kong attraction to replace one burned down the original, David & Goliath created a bigger-than-life guerrilla marketing campaign.
Small Agency of the Year, 76-150 Employees, Silver: Eleven
There is a particular reference, a pop-culture curio that is certain to bubble up in people's minds when you hang a shingle outside your company's offices emblazoned with a conspicuously appointed prime number: Eleven.
Small Agency of the Year, 76-150 Employees, Silver: Sterling-Rice Group
Without delving too deeply into the office politics, Sterling Rice is not too similar to "Mad Men's" fictional Sterling Cooper. But President Buddy Ketchner doesn't mind the connection.
Small Agency of the Year, 1-10 Employees, Gold: Mistress
In an agency environment with increasingly bizarre agency names, Mistress still stands out. So how exactly does an agency behave as a mistress?
Small Agency of the Year, 1-10 Employees, Silver: Tattoo Projects
Tattoo Projects is not into commitment, preferring projects for a flat fee vs. a long-term relationship on contract. Or as the 10-person Charlotte-based creative agency says, it wants to date, not get married.
Small Agency of the Year, 11-75 Employees, Silver: Blitz
Ivan Todorov and Ken Martin were still in college when they started Blitz in Silicon Valley in 2001. Since then, they have picked up an additional 53 employees and nearly half as many clients.
Small Agency of the Year, 11-75 Employees, Gold: Mekanism
Get a producer, director, tech-head and animator together in adland and what do you get? An agency band that makes beautiful music.
Small Agency of the Year, West, Gold: Odopod
"Since day one at Odopod, we've always tried to do product work and marketing work since our interests have spanned both," said Odopod Founder-Creative Director Tim Barber.
Small Agency of the Year, Midwest, Gold: Space 150
Some of the Space 150's biggest clients have included American Express and Dairy Queen. But the agency's standout work comes from clients such as Discover Boating, where the agency turned to Facebook to sell boating in the midst of the recession, when families were vacationing less.
Small Agency of the Year, West, Gold: Zambezi
Zambezi has tripled its number of full-time staffers in the last year, is moving to bigger digs Labor Day weekend, and is about to open an office in Shanghai.
Small Agency of the Year, Southwest, Gold: StruckAxiom
Not all agency mergers work well. But the 2009 coupling of Struck and Axiom came together seamlessly.
Small Agency of the Year, Northeast, Gold: Deeplocal
With a head count of 10, Deeplocal invents and engineers new products on its own, while also performing paid service work for advertising clients.
Small Agency of the Year, Southeast, Gold: Planit
Planit may flaunt the typical boutique-agency decor -- bright orange logo, beer and energy-drink cooler in the lobby -- but the Baltimore-based firm's growth is anything but ordinary.
Video: AOL's David Shing on the Way We'll Communicate Next
AOL Digital Prophet David Shing had a clear message for attendees at Ad Age's Small Agency Conference: consumers want more conversation, and fewer campaigns and chatter.
