Table of contents for October 4, 2021 in Adweek

In 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. “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…

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…

1 WHTWRKS INC. Growth: 820% HQ: New York | Category: Full-service | Overall rank: 4 SEE TOP 10 LIST 2 WE ARE ROSIE SEE TOP 10 LIST HQ: Atlanta Growth: 556% Category: Flexible talent supplier Overall rank: 7 3 DIGIBLE INC. SEE TOP 10 LIST HQ: Englewood, Colo. Growth: 460% Category: Digital Overall rank: 9 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…

1 ARTS & LETTERS CREATIVE CO. Growth: 144% 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…

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 from his agency, Maximum Effort, has barely featured the actor at all. And maybe that’s a good thing. MNTN, the connected 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. It wasn’t even close. The Reynolds-voiced ad generated 117% more site visits than the one featuring him on-camera. Ouch.…

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…

STRENGTHEN 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. MEET 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…

1 WPROMOTE Growth: 1,551% HQ: El Segundo, Calif. Category: Digital Overall rank: 2 SEE TOP 10 LIST 2 NP DIGITAL SEE TOP 10 LIST HQ: San Diego | Growth: 585% Category: Digital Overall rank: 6 3 POWER DIGITAL MARKETING HQ: San Diego | Growth: 185% 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. 4 OLIVER NORTH AMERICA HQ: New York | Growth: 183% Category: Full-service Overall rank: 25 Oliver’s “inside-out” focus for its clients has fueled…

1 MOVERS+SHAKERS Growth: 2,227% HQ: Santa Monica, Calif. | Category: Creative | Overall rank: 1 SEE TOP 10 LIST 2 WHTWRKS INC. SEE TOP 10 LIST HQ: New York Growth: 820% Category: Full-service Overall rank: 4 3 NP DIGITAL SEE TOP 10 LIST HQ: San Diego Growth: 585% Category: Digital Overall rank: 6 4 ADESIEM SEE TOP 10 LIST HQ: Clayton, Mo. Growth: 451% Category: Digital Overall rank: 10 5 CHICORY HQ: New York | Growth: 332% Category: Digital Overall rank: 14 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…

1 AMASA Growth: 541% HQ: San Diego | Category: Digital | Overall rank: 8 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…

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. 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…

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…

1 MOVERS+SHAKERS Growth: 2,227% HQ: Santa Monica, Calif. Category: Creative Overall rank: 1 SEE TOP 10 LIST 2 RINGOFIRE MARKETING AND ADVERTISING SEE TOP 10 LIST HQ: Greenville, S.C. | Growth: 746% Category: Full-service Overall rank: 5 3 DIGIBLE INC. SEE TOP 10 LIST HQ: Englewood, Colo. | Growth: 460% Category: Digital Overall rank: 9 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…

1 WE ARE ROSIE Growth: 556% HQ: Atlanta Category: Flexible talent supplier Overall rank: 7 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,…

1 CHICORY Growth: 322% HQ: New York Category: Digital Overall rank: 14 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. 2 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…