2025 Winners
Meet the 2025 Top 40
These are the independent agencies and people who proudly wear their unique style as a badge of honor. The ones who approach business, creativity, and culture from refreshingly different perspectives.
Five days of live countdown reveals, condensed into one celebratory scroll. Each winner was announced during our livestreams, where placements were kept secret until the moment of reveal.
Our jury reviewed every nomination, looking for the agencies and people who embody what makes indie special - the courage to be different, the commitment to independence, and the creativity that comes from staying true to who you are.Beyond the Top 40: Every quality submission that didn't make the Top 40 received an Award of Merit. Because great work deserves recognition, even when the list is limited to 40.
Share the love: Each winner has their own shareable link. Found someone inspiring? Pass it along.
The Complete List
Jump to any winner or scroll to explore
#1 Corner Table Creative Agency #2 Alyssa Ahern (Honeymoon) People + Teams #3 Klick Health Agency #4 Elite Media Agency #5 Jamon Deaver (Cornett) People + Teams #6 GYK Agency #7 Bob Sprague (Yes&) People + Teams #8 Eden Collective Agency #9 Revery Agency #10 Andrew Graff (A&G) People + Teams #11 Aaron Duffy (SpecialGuest) People + Teams #12 Doug Cameron (DCX Growth Accelerator) People + Teams #13 Bruna Camargo (Lafayette American) People + Teams #14 Doe-Anderson Agency #15 Eva Wasko (A&G) People + Teams #16 BarkleyOKRP Agency #17 Beers With Friends Agency #18 Buntin (Greeting Committee) People + Teams #19 Honeymoon Agency #20 No Single Individual Agency #21 Made Music Studio Agency #22 Lynn Bossange (270B) People + Teams #23 hunterblu media Agency #24 X&O Agency #25 Saylor Agency #26 Super Nice Agency #27 SuperHeroes Agency #28 Curiosity Agency #29 Dennis Bannon (SCC) People + Teams #30 A&G Agency #31 D/CAL Agency #32 Public Inc. Agency #33 Myriah Castillo (JoyByte) People + Teams #34 Guesthouse Agency #35 Ashley Walters (Curiosity) People + Teams #36 Luke Behrends (Words From The Woods) People + Teams #37 Poke The Bear Agency #38 Stoltz Marketing Group Agency #39 Blurr Bureau Agency #40 Vacation Agency
#1
Corner Table Creative
Agency Two years ago over dinner: "Maybe we'll do our own thing someday." Six weeks later, they launched—no logo, no website, just Sweetgreen taking a chance on them. Now they're Sweetgreen's AOR, plus Marriott, NBC Universal, Starbucks. 80% clients on retainer, 76% female team, profit sharing after year one. They agonized over what the logo would look like until they just went artiste. Inspired by Unreasonable Hospitality (and probably The Bear), they built an agency where hospitality isn't a metaphor—it's the job: make feeds fun, make connections memorable, make people feel seen, heard, and valued. High care plus high speed plus high impact.
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#2
Alyssa Ahern
People + Teams Earned media Voice of God. No creative idea leaves Honeymoon without her approval. If she says media won't care, they don't pitch it. If a client waters down an idea too much, she's first to say "give the money back—don't spend it on this diluted version." Lives in Homer Glen (hour and 45 minutes from Chicago), works from her kitchen table, celebrates wins with Dirty Shirleys. Led Fireball's Crierball (made from tears of rival sports fans), Buzz Balls' Blue Balls, Bomb Pop's 70th anniversary. Every pitch, clients ask: "Is Ahern on the business?" The signal within the agency: "Why? Because Ahern." Also: certified storm chaser, but nobody knows more about that one.
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#3
Klick Health
Agency Rich Levy showed up with a five-year plan to be one of the best in the world. The base was already there—just get out of the way. Junior copywriters pitch ideas that become real products. They gave away a million dollars in employee AI prize money—winning idea got commercialized. They produce a live TV each quarter for the global Klick team. First health agency ever to win Agency of the Year at both The One Show and New York Festivals. The year they placed #3 globally at Cannes, (they couldn't get into the ceremony—watched from their rental). 1,548 people, 28 years founder-led, still independent.
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#4
Elite Media
Agency Black-owned, female-led, Harlem-based. Built on a simple premise: "We think differently because we are different." Every "no" becomes a creative challenge. Every brief gets filtered through perspective that most agencies don't have and can't buy. Perspective as power.
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#5
Jamon Deaver
People + Teams Threw a three-day camping festival wedding that got covered by the New York Times, then turned down big agencies to join Cornett and prove Kentucky can produce world-class work. Put "Work is a Drag" in the official HR handbook—if you can't bring your full self to work, what's the point?
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#6
GYK
Agency Manchester and Boston since 1975, now full of people who fled holding companies for something that isn't a math problem. 126% new business lift last year, 75 people, autopilot is the enemy. Disrupting beats being disrupted.
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#7
Bob Sprague
People + Teams Started composing film scores in DC before anyone handed him a brief. Built Yes& by taking the hard clients—healthcare, government, IT—that other agencies avoid. Turns out solving complicated problems builds loyalty that survives CMO changes and budget cuts. Core philosophy: "let's try it ism."
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#8
Eden Collective
Agency Media strategy firm that doesn't buy media. Ever. Keeps incentives clean, guidance impartial. Instead, they build the operating system—strategy, measurement, learning agenda—with zero financial bias. Told to "lower your bar to succeed," said no thanks, stayed entirely self-funded. Performance agencies skip the thinking—they do the thinking.
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#9
Revery
Agency Portland and LA storytelling studio where purpose isn't a campaign pillar, it's the operating principle. Values-funded model: revenue from big brand partnerships fuels original and pro-bono work aligned with their ethics. Launched Coach's WNBA draft by getting out of the way, letting rookies tell their own stories. Bringing brands to story, not market—there's a difference.
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#10
Andrew Graff
People + Teams "Don't tell me it's always been done that way, because I don't believe it." Designs spaces for intentional togetherness. Hires social workers. Some agencies need therapy, his provides it.
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#11
Aaron Duffy
People + Teams Half their work: nothing digital, 100% real—the OK Go approach applied everywhere, no edit software allowed. Other half: inventing tech, messing with AI since 2017, freaking out Safdie brothers at Fashion Week. The duality is the point.
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#12
Doug Cameron
People + Teams Bagpipe instructor leading an agency that created Palessi (the Payless luxury stunt), saved neighborhood bodegas, and measures success by chaos caused and power structures rattled. Some agencies make work, DCX makes moments.
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#13
Bruna Camargo
People + Teams Four years building a social practice from scratch. "Wouldn't have been able to do this without the trust"—rare honesty about what it takes to start something new inside an agency.
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#14
Doe-Anderson
Agency Louisville since 1915. Employee-owned since the '50s when the founder sold shares to the team for $10,000. They still issue shares once a year, stay well-capitalized, and partner for decades while everyone else optimizes for quarters.
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#15
Eva Wasko
People + Teams Former stage manager now making budget proposals instead of moving like an animal in acting class. Philadelphia office, Sound of Philadelphia energy. Improv training never leaves you, just redirects.
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#16
BarkleyOKRP
Agency The big indie: 730 people, five cities. H.A.L.O. stands for honest, audacious, a little off. Merged last year, integrating creative and media, somehow still having fun. Proof that scale and soul aren't mutually exclusive.
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#17
Beers With Friends
Agency Built for brand-side marketers tired of traditional agency theater. Five-day "beer run" sprints, one weekly meeting: four hours focused on getting to great. Saturday Night Live urgency meets Google Ventures discipline.
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#18
Buntin (Greeting Committee)
People + Teams Five misfits—operations, HR, marketing—who probably answer when you call. The overflow wedding table who makes it fun. Tanner handwrites anniversary cards. CEO loves Werther's. Nobody's pretending this is normal.
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#19
Honeymoon
Agency Walked away from being rolled into a publicly traded consulting firm post-private equity nightmare. Started fresh in Chicago and OKC with 50 people, creative roots intact. Sometimes you have to leave to get back to the work.
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#20
No Single Individual
Agency Places freelance strategists and account talent at agencies—never works with brands directly. Keeps the roster at 18 people so they know exactly who fits where. Not a talent marketplace, a matchmaking service that works.
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#21
Made Music Studio
Agency 25 years proving sonic branding isn't mystical—it's measurable. Nobody's spending six figures on sound unless they know it'll work. They're done with the mystery, all in on the science.
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#22
Lynn Bossange
People + Teams Digital transition veteran from Leo and Burnett now embracing scrappiness with relentless proactivity. (Five months at Chiat. Thanks for scrolling.)
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#23
hunterblu media
Agency 100% remote, Miami-based, self-identified weirdos. Onboard and go live in two weeks flat. Most agencies promise speed or quality—they figured out you can have both if you've been doing this long enough.
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#24
X&O
Agency Challenge you to think slightly differently about everything. Not as strategy—as reflex. Makes them either perfect or impossible depending on your tolerance for reconsideration.
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#25
Saylor
Agency Born from Hollywood by someone who worked Disney and Netflix, then built the agency he wished existed. Two to 87 people in four years helping studios catch up to Netflix. Sometimes the best partnerships start with "I could do this better."
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#26
Super Nice
Agency "Nice wins" isn't the slogan, it's the operating system. No decks, no jargon, just conversations. Took Norwegian Cruise Line from brief to launch in eight weeks, almost crashed their site giving away tickets. Niceness with velocity.
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#27
SuperHeroes
Agency Amsterdam to Brooklyn with mandatory Dutch lunches and The Robins—80 Gen Z tastemakers who find insights. JIMMY network of CGI/AI artists makes them real. 500 million views annually, half earned, not bought. Flying bison for Netflix, sneakers in space for Balenciaga, aquarium bus stops. Created smell stoppers for subway stench, rat-scaring janklets, AI owl you can talk to. Cultural interventions, not stunts.
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#28
Curiosity
Agency Cincinnati. No beaches, no NBA team, no holding company backing. Just guts and brands willing to bet on them while everyone else is stuck in meetings about meetings.
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#29
Dennis Bannon
People + Teams Left Michigan for Chicago, got a custom blues song about it. "They taught him books up in Ann Arbor, but the streets taught him to play." Longest intro music of the week, worth every second.
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#30
A&G
Agency Boston and Philadelphia since 1985. Forty years of making both cities' agency scenes worth watching. Sometimes longevity is the biggest middle finger of all.
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#31
D/CAL
Agency Detroit, Chicago, San Diego. Co-founder worked at Carhartt, met Tony Hawk a few times, proposed an agency built for the Attention Economy. Independent board includes Tony Hawk, who owns equity. Developed the SubMethod—for diving into subcultures within audiences. Smallest AOR some brands ever hired because they actually understand creators.
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#32
Public Inc.
Agency Toronto and New York. Profit with purpose since 2008. Seventeen years of staying independent while everyone else sold—turns out sustained commitment looks rebellious now.
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#33
Myriah Castillo
People + Teams 40% revenue growth in 2024, tracking for 60% more this year. Leaned into TikTok when others pulled back, accidentally became the #1 TikTok Shop agency. Bakeful campaign hit 30 million impressions. Apparently she knows something.
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#34
Guesthouse
Agency Launched 2024 across Atlanta and Chapel Hill. Positioning: partners on your team, not enemies to defeat. Also: "in-house with extra nice sheets." Honestly perfect.
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#35
Ashley Walters
People + Teams Put a CMO to sleep mid-pitch, then spent six months studying improv at Second City to make sure it never happened again. Now hosts a podcast where guests pick their own adventure. Growth through humiliation works.
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#36
Luke Behrends
People + Teams Bailed on New York burnout for Portland, Maine. Hires people who've never worked in agencies, sweeps local awards, and nailed advertising's hardest trick: educating clients while pushing them forward simultaneously.
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#37
Poke The Bear
Agency 534% growth from zero with Dallas swagger. Figured out what big agencies know but won't admit: three people do the actual work anyway, so why not skip the overhead?
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#38
Stoltz Marketing Group
Agency Doing world-class work from Boise since 1997. Yes, Boise. Built on three principles: do good work, have fun, make some money. No grand plan, no corporate ladder—just proof that great ideas and good people can build something lasting anywhere.
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#39
Blurr Bureau
Agency Women-owned and running operations between New York and Melbourne. The time zone split alone qualifies them as underdogs, but they're making it work anyway.
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#40
Vacation
Agency Their agency crest translates to "unbothered and optimistic." They mean it literally—98% vibes, 2% talent and chutzpah, and honestly, it's working.
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Merit Winners
These entries also earned recognition from our jury for their exceptional contributions to the independent agency community.
270B
Adam Gong
No Problem
broadhead.
Built Different: The Lewis Way
BUNTIN. Beyond Attention. Conviction.
Campfire Connect
Campfire Consulting
Campfire Consulting
Chantal Sagnes
270B
Consiglieri
Crown
Curiosity Social Media Team
Curiosity
Curiosity's Marketing Team
Curiosity
Dean Broadhead
broadhead.
HATCH
Hi we're territorial (in a nice way)
Jake Hay
PopShorts
Jenna Blackson
Lafayette American
Jordan Warren
Alliance Creative Partners
Left Hand Agency: Media Misfits
No Problem
PopShorts
Ransom Haywood
SUPER NICE