Indie Agency News members spent the past few days proving that the best marketing happens when you stop overthinking and start doing things that make people pay attention. From root beer-scented cologne drops on TikTok Shop to agencies guaranteeing campaign results with predictive tech, the pattern is clear: confidence beats caution, and specificity beats strategy decks. Also, remarketing is apparently the most underused tool in modern marketing, 80% of brands are actively ignoring Distinctive Brand Assets research, and someone finally made a talking bear that won a VIDDY. Let’s get into it.
🍺 When the Bit Becomes the Brand
VaynerMedia helped MUG launch Daddy’s Home cologne—a root beer-scented fragrance that started as a viral joke post and ended as a limited-edition TikTok Shop exclusive. The spot spoofs traditional fragrance commercials while describing the scent as one that will “turn the pups into aura farming dogs.” Sometimes the best creative strategy is just fully leaning into the bit.
Where Eagles Dare Co. launched Snow Cool for Five Below—a holiday brand built entirely around cranking up the cheer and the puns. Packaging, patterning, product voice designed for Fa La La La Fun from top to bottom. No strategic ambiguity here.
📊 The Attention Economy Has Actual Economics Now
VaynerMedia‘s CMO Avery Akkineni explained Day Trading Attention on the Inside Insights podcast, making the case that if social media disappeared tomorrow, they’d already be onto the next conversation starter. The whole philosophy is about staying ahead of where attention moves, not chasing where it was.
Fohr is now guaranteeing campaign results with predictive technology. No more guessing how many impressions you need, which creators to cast, or whether your campaign will succeed. Their platform defines ideal audiences, identifies creators who will reach them, and predicts success with precision. The era of “let’s see what happens” is over for agencies willing to commit to the data.
🎯 Remarketing: Marketing’s Most Ignored Superpower
Left Off Madison called it out: remarketing is the most underused, underfunded, underdeveloped tool in modern marketing. The math is brutal: 80% of brands ignore it, 10% dabble in it, 10% dominate with it. And the 10% are winning because true remarketing isn’t one banner chasing someone around the internet—it’s frequency management, funnel friction audits, creative decay tracking, sequenced messaging, and intent-matched KPIs. Most brands don’t have a remarketing program. They just hope their pixel remembers people.
🐻 Character Work That Actually Works
Walrus won a VIDDY for the Lowes Foods Brown Bear campaign they created with Cardboard Spaceship. Sometimes a talking bear and musical squirrel are exactly what a grocery chain needs. The campaign brought personality to a category that usually plays it safe.
Curiosity landed on Ad Age’s “14 Creative Campaigns to Know About Today” roundup for their Curiosity Saves The Cats campaign supporting SPCA Cincinnati. AI-powered pet adoption messaging that actually drove donations instead of just awareness.
🏆 Recognition Worth Noting
Klick brought home 10 awards at the New York Festivals Health Awards—2 Gold, 3 Silver, and 5 Bronze. Work like ’47’, ’18 Months’, ‘The Trial’, ‘Voice 2 Diabetes’, and ‘You’ll Be Back’ pushed boundaries and sparked conversations across the healthcare marketing space. They also earned Silver at the Campaign Asia-Pacific Agency of the Year awards in the Southeast Asia Specialist Agency of the Year category.
McKinney Co-Chief Creative Officer Omid Amidi joined The One Club for Creativity Cultural Driver Jury 2026, bringing his perspective to a global panel recognizing work that moves culture and shapes how brands show up.
🎓 Strategic Thinking You Can Actually Use
SRH broke down research from the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute on Distinctive Brand Assets: consumers are good at telling brands apart (no one confuses Chick-fil-A with KFC despite identical colors and chicken), but fame matters slightly more than uniqueness. The magic number is 5-7 assets—logo, colors, font, pack, tagline, sonic cue, maybe a character. More isn’t better because each asset requires substantial long-term investment. Use them everywhere in everything all the time for a very long time.
Model B featured CMO Derek Weeks of Katalon on Beyond the Brief, unpacking purposeful marketing, community engagement, and building mindshare in B2B software. Also featured Jon Barnes discussing permanent AI shifts—including the fact that 50% of searches now don’t result in a click—while predicting a boomerang effect where authenticity and trustworthiness reclaim their place.
Left Hamd Agency published advanced questions that separate mature retail media networks from ones just selling expensive impressions. With billions pouring into retail media, the brands that ask better questions will make smarter investments.
🌶️ Long-Term Partnerships That Actually Build Brands
Zeus Jones documented their seven-year partnership with Chipotle, working to grow the brand into a modern icon by clarifying beliefs, codifying purpose, and building systems to carry it forward. They brought it to life through brand design, platform innovation, and immersive experiences for Chipotle Goods, Digital Kitchen, and Chipotle Rewards. The result is a brand that feels cohesive, creative, and deeply connected with culture, audience, and what it stands for.
RP3 Agency partnered with Northern Virginia Community College—calling them leaders in shaping the future of higher education. Big things brewing for a 2026 campaign launch. Meanwhile, they hosted a lunch-and-learn featuring the campaign that landed a shout-out on Jimmy Kimmel.
Red Door Interactive helped Anova Culinary take a smarter holiday approach in 2024, leading with purpose over promotion while other brands flooded feeds with deep discounts. If your holiday strategy starts in Q4, you’re already behind.
🔮 Agency Evolution in Real Time
Bob’s Your Uncle launched their new positioning as the creative agency that turns challenger brands into category leaders. From launching Mike’s Hard Lemonade and helping create the RTD category to scaling Popeyes from 20 restaurants to a national powerhouse, their work focuses on helping ambitious brands break through, build momentum, and lead their category. They turn heroes into kings and kings into category icons.
Chemistry celebrated Taylor Guglielmo’s first 100 days as President—10 years with the agency, 3 roles, and a track record of making simple, impactful moves that keep making the agency better.
White Rabbit Group hosted a LinkedIn Live featuring the DNA&Stone merger, showing how to multiply impact rather than just manage budgets by combining deep roots in trust and process with boundary-pushing work.
📚 Industry Intelligence
Eight Oh Two Marketing noted that nearly 60% of patients now search online when choosing a primary care provider. Your visibility in search results matters more than ever, from local SEO to AI-powered updates.
Iris submitted a proposal to SXSW London 2026 arguing that prediction is dead and culture is now the real engine of behavior. If you’re tired of outdated funnels, tidy segments, and the illusion that we can “predict” people, they want to bring a fresh take to the stage.
Vuja Dé Digital shared research showing commerce media just dethroned TV as the dominant ad format, and the traditional marketing funnel officially collapsed. If you’re still planning 2026 media buys around “awareness” vs. “performance,” you’ve already lost.
The Gerety Awards announced the 2026 Grand Jury and a new category called Moments Cut, created to honor campaigns that didn’t wait to ask for permission. They also hosted a conversation with Ain’t, winners of Independent Agency of the Year at Golden Drum 2025.
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