Mark Barker and Jordan Ruden were both fractional CMOs wrestling with the same questions that keep marketers up at night: Should we be spending at all? How much? What’s the relative impact going to be? They founded Craft & Commerce (C&C) in 2018 to be the media agency they wished they’d had—one that brings commercial success to the craft. After early wins with brands navigating growth inflection points, C&C has recently added Chobani, TrueCar, and MUSH to a roster that includes Girl Scouts USA and NASA.
“We approach media from a marketer’s perspective,” says Barker, who’s seen both sides of the table. “When you’ve sat in the marketer seat, you’ve really been accountable for growth. The buck really stops with you.”
Six years in, that marketer’s mentality continues to resonate with brands caught between performance ceilings and profitable growth.
A quick history of Craft & Commerce
Barker and Ruden launched C&C with a simple premise: agencies typically center their gravity on the craft side, but what about commercial outcomes? Both had been early fractional CMOs, experiencing firsthand the pain points of traditional agency relationships. The name itself captures their philosophy—bringing craft and commerce together at one intersection. Their first client believed in the vision so much, she eventually joined them. Carli Feinstein, now Managing Director and partner, made the leap from client to agency after relying on C&C as her startup’s growth engine.
What Craft & Commerce is best known for
C&C has carved out an identity as “the media agency run by marketers.” They’re intentional about staffing senior roles with brand-side experience—people who’ve been accountable for growth, faced board scrutiny, and lost sleep over media spend decisions. This shapes everything from their strategic approach to their day-to-day client interactions. They’re built for brands at inflection points: launching or relaunching, hitting performance ceilings, or facing new PE scrutiny on every dollar spent.
What makes Craft & Commerce tick
First, they surround media planning with what they call an “intelligence layer”—using marketing science to answer foundational questions about spending levels and channel mix. Second, they focus heavily on scenario planning and forecasting, building proprietary tools to model different investment strategies. Third, they take a “no-nonsense approach to business impact measurement” that goes beyond standard attribution models. As Feinstein puts it, they operate as “an extension of your team,” anticipating questions before they’re asked.
The power of being indie
“I wanted to do innovative things, work across different parts of the business, and move really quickly,” says Barker. “It’s really hard to do that in a big agency environment.” C&C has been remote since before COVID made it mandatory, with team members from Chicago to Arkansas. They’re proud partners of the Nostos Network, giving them access to 60+ indie agencies for 360-degree capabilities. The unexpected benefit? The indie community itself. “We’re all looking out for each other,” notes Feinstein, citing shared learnings on everything from operations to implementing the EOS management framework.
Why brands should work with Craft & Commerce
C&C thrives with brands “somewhere in the middle”—not just getting started, not massive enterprises, but growing companies with lean marketing teams tasked with doing more with less. These brands often face enhanced scrutiny on investment, whether from PE firms or boards asking critical questions about media spend. “How much should we spend? What happens if we spend this or that?” Barker explains. They’ve built their entire operation around answering these questions with data, forecasting, and marketing science rather than gut feelings.
Why talent thrives at Craft & Commerce
The agency offers complete flexibility through their “work from wherever” stipend—whether that’s upgrading home offices or joining coworking spaces. Chicago and New York teams gather weekly at WeWorks, while remote staff in Kentucky, Atlanta, and Arkansas set their own rhythms. “We want to foster collaboration but give everyone flexibility to manage their life,” says Feinstein. The approach emerged organically when a Chicago staffer spoke up about feeling stuck at home in winter. Now it’s policy, with the team actively shaping how it evolves.
So… weirdos, misfits, or underdogs?
“I’m gonna go with underdog. We definitely take a different approach and have a different talk track. We feel like an underdog when we’re going into rooms where folks not only have massive teams but are investing a ton in technology, and we’re talking about really strategic people.”
A hello to one CMO
Barker gives a shout-out to the growing world of fractional CMOs, particularly Ben Johannes, “probably the best we’ve ever seen in merging marketing strategy and business success.” Feinstein, meanwhile, would love to work with the WNBA: “Coming off some very emphatic NCAA Tournament watching in my house for the women’s tournament specifically… I think there’s such a huge moment in women’s sports.”
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Contact: hello@craftand.com
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