The best insights don’t come wrapped in jargon. They come from people willing to call out what everyone else politely ignores. Left Hand Agency declared store count a vanity metric—%ACV is what actually matters. Eight Oh Two Marketing said the highest holiday ROAS won’t come from last-minute spending but from brands that planned ahead. Blurr Bureau reminded founders that brand isn’t the expense you cut—it’s the investment that sets you up for growth. This week, Indie Agency News members are cutting through the noise with observations that feel less like marketing speak and more like the truth someone finally decided to say out loud.
📊 When Data Cuts Through the Noise
Left Hand Agency CEO Lauren Ridgley delivered a CPG hot take worth remembering: store count is a vanity metric. %ACV is what actually tells you whether your distribution strategy is working or just looks good in a deck. Her no-fluff guide to ACV Distribution breaks down what it is, how to calculate it, and how to use it to drive real growth. The kind of straight talk that saves brands from celebrating the wrong wins.
TravelBoom Hotel Marketing released research showing 83% of travelers have used or want to use AI to plan their trips. Trust in AI is rising fast. The question for hoteliers isn’t whether AI matters—it’s whether you’re showing up in AI-powered trip planning. When the majority of your potential guests are asking algorithms for recommendations, visibility in those systems becomes the new SEO.
Eight Oh Two Marketing explained why the highest holiday ROAS won’t come from last-minute spending. It’ll come from brands that planned ahead—using early search intent to inform creative, segment audiences, and stretch budgets before CPCs peak. Their latest blog breaks down how to make every dollar count with a future-ready paid search strategy designed for eCommerce growth. Planning beats panic every time.
Davis+Gilbert LLP found that AI has become the great equalizer in PR. According to their 13th Annual Public Relations Industry Trends Report, 79% of firms now use AI for written content creation—nearly double the amount from two years ago. Over 50% use it for social listening, media monitoring, ideation, visual content creation and data analytics. And 32% are building their own proprietary tools. The technology democratizes capabilities that used to require enterprise-level resources.
🔧 Tools That Solve Real Problems
Klick unveiled InsightFull™, a human-in-the-loop AI engine that helps life sciences teams uncover powerful market signals hidden across 1M+ unstructured data points. Chief Strategy Officer Carl Turner explains that InsightFull blends the scale and speed of AI with the nuanced judgment of data scientists and analysts, turning complexity into the powerful observations clients crave. Already helping clients answer pressing business questions and uncover patterns, trends, and risk areas.
Legal+Creative | Toerek Law asked the question agencies need to answer: Would your agency know how to respond if a client approached you about developing tech for HIPAA compliance, or asked who really owns the resulting IP? Their latest podcast episode with Aaron Burnett, CEO of Wheelhouse Digital Marketing Group, breaks down how transparency, trust, and ethical negotiation help agencies retain their IP, protect their work, and strengthen client relationships. Too many agencies underestimate the value of the innovation they create and hand it over without realizing its true worth.
💡 Strategy That Faces Reality
Left Off Madison flipped the script on tight budgets: they’re not a setback, they’re an advantage—if you know how to use them. This year, many brands tightened spending in response to tariffs and market pressure. The real challenge wasn’t reduced budgets—it was misaligned expectations and knee-jerk shifts to either upper-funnel or lower-funnel tactics only. Their approach: full-funnel strategy at any budget level, narrower and smarter audience definition, geographic precision over broad waste, and clear, repeatable measurement. That’s how momentum survives when competitors panic.
Blurr Bureau reminded founders why brand is often the first thing cut from budgets—and why that’s exactly backward. Investing in brand early doesn’t slow you down, it sets you up for growth. It helps you raise capital, attract the right partners, and create loyalty long before you’re on shelf or in-store. A strong brand gives you a clear foundation so every decision ladders back to your vision, distinct positioning so you stand out in a crowded category, and scalability so when you grow, your brand grows with you. The ROI might be harder to wrestle with early on, but the payoff compounds.
SRH went on a quest to find the holy grail of media planning, paraphrasing Indiana Jones along the way: “We do not follow trends to buried treasure, and X never, ever marks the spot. 70% of all media planning is done in the library. Researching. Reading. We cannot afford to take mythology at face value.” Their TL;DR Empirical Marketing Dispatch tackles the fundamentals that matter more than the latest platform hype.
🎯 Wins Worth Celebrating
Mythology watched their Partner & Head of Retail Ted Galperin join CHAGEE at Nasdaq as the brand rang the bell for their eight-year anniversary. A special moment reflecting how far the brand has come in a short time. They’ve loved seeing the growth up close.
BarkleyOKRP was awarded the Agency Compile Large Agency New Business Team of the Year. Their response: “We do the work because we love the work. Still, it’s an honor.” Cheers to all the late-night pitch teams whispering “just one more slide” at midnight.
David&Golaith was featured as one of the Top Advertising Agencies in Southern California by the Los Angeles Times. The recognition reflects the brave thinking, relentless creativity, and challenger spirit their team brings to every brief and client.
Special Australia celebrated Tom Martin & Julian Schreiber topping B&T’s Best of the Best Indie Creatives. From shaping Uber Eats globally to leading five Super Bowl campaigns from Australia, co-founding the Shift 20 Initiative with Dylan Alcott, and pushing creativity across every corner of their network, their impact is impossible to overstate.
🏆 Work That Connects
McKinney won Gold at the 2025 Anthem Awards for “Check, Mate” from Voices of Alzheimer’s. The recognition emphasizes the campaign’s mission of encouraging early detection and testing for Alzheimer’s to help individuals act sooner. Work that matters, recognized for making an impact.
Vacation won Gold at The Anthem Awards for MIND YOUR BUSINESS, their full-scroll report on queer perspectives. Their observation: What do Vacation and Paris Hilton have in common? Great looks? Check. Generational wealth? Hmm, not that. But they were both honored by The Anthem Awards. Shoutout to Okay Human for the partnership.
Rethink had Walton Goggins win hottest celebrity spokesperson as the Doritos Golden Sriracha ‘Spicy But Not Too Spicy Plumber’. Ad Age highlighted it in their round-up of best celebrity-brand collaborations of 2025. Can’t argue with that casting.
X&O created work for Mr Pibb that positions old school soda as new rebel fuel. The Coca-Cola Company partnership shows what happens when you let a brand’s heritage do the talking.
🎙️ Conversations Worth Your Time
Day One Agency hosted a special live episode of Day One FM with Annie Rauwerda, comedian, long-time Wikipedian, and founder of @depthsofwikipedia. They discussed what it takes to be a Wikipedia editor, why she’s optimistic about the next generation of internet users, and a wonderful story about making lifelong friends from her “Perpetual Stew.” The kind of conversation that reminds you the internet still has corners worth exploring.
The Gerety Awards is launching a new edition of Gerety Talks on December 2 in partnership with Golden Drum. This episode features AIN’T, named Independent Agency of the Year at Golden Drum International Festival of Creativity. Worth tuning in to hear what sets them apart.
🚀 Moves That Signal Growth
VaynerMedia APAC is stepping in as the lead social agency for HBO Max Australia. What happens when a social-first agency meets one of the most iconic storytellers on the planet? HBO Max Australia already has a massive, deeply engaged fandom built on world-class storytelling. Now VaynerMedia gets to help amplify it, analyzing, ideating, and making social-first moments that move at the speed of culture.
Chameleon Collective led the charge for Sunbird, breaking the green bubble and blue bubble divide with a universal messaging app designed to connect everyone, regardless of platform. Partner Casey Knox assembled an agile team to create a full-scale launch strategy that turned a big idea into a movement. With patents pending, an alpha product, and funding in place, Sunbird needed momentum to capture attention and build anticipation.
Stoltz Marketing Group created a lead-driving kit for Amazon One Medical that speaks fluent Columbus. When Amazon One Medical needed a jolt of fresh energy and sales in markets like Columbus, they packed local love into a box centered on a reframe of an iconic Ohio tourism tagline. Street scenes, Buckeye brew, Jules Jams, and other surprise-and-delights opened doors before reps even said a word. Healthcare is personal. Your outreach should be, too.
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