The 2026 Ad Age A-List dropped this week and the indie community helped itself to the hardware. Separately, new research from an Indie Agency News member confirms what a lot of people have been sensing: consumers are turning to AI before they touch Google, and brands that haven’t positioned for that shift are already falling off shortlists. Somewhere in between, three campaigns landed with results specific enough to quote at a board meeting, Inc. Magazine’s Female Founders 500 gave a well-deserved nod to founders across the community, and a few milestone anniversaries put the long game of indie agency building on full display. It was a busy few days for Indie Agency News members — and it showed.
🏆 When the A-List Becomes an Indie List
It was a good week to have an independent streak.
The 2026 Ad Age A-List recognized 10 creative agencies proving that great work is alive and well — and indie agencies claimed more than their share of the floor.
Rethink took the top honor, named Agency of the Year in the US, an exclusive recognition that acknowledges the kind of consistent creative output that doesn’t happen by accident. The full Ad Age feature has the details.
Terri & Sandy landed an A-List Standout, marking the recognition with the right kind of brevity — “Big ups to everyone who helped us crush the last year.” Adrianne Pasquarelli’s write-up on Ad Age covers what that year looked like from the outside.
Chemistry picked up their own Standout nod on the back of what they describe, accurately, as a pretty powerful growth strategy: curiosity. Their Ad Age feature is worth the read.
Two Things spotted the broader pattern and pointed to Indie Agency News’s breakdown of the A-List indie takeover — writer Bryna Keenaghan connected the dots well.
Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, Serviceplan Group claimed a separate but equally significant double: Munich was ranked #1 Independent Agency worldwide and the Group ranked #1 Independent Network in the WARC Creative 100. Global CCO Alex Schill called it a recognition belonging to “our teams, partners and clients who believe in the power of ÜberCreativity.”
📊 The Numbers Are Saying Something
Real results, stated plainly.
Three campaigns this week led with data, and the specificity is genuinely refreshing.
PB& broke down the strategic unlock behind “More Than a Home,” their campaign for Windermere Real Estate. The insight: nobody remembers the day they signed the paperwork — they remember the first dinner in the new place, the first quiet morning that made a space feel like theirs. That human reframe drove a 400% increase in branded search, 20% follower growth and an 18% lift in direct traffic. Emotional insight with a P&L attached.
Loop built something different for the Mortal Kombat II red-band trailer launch — an interactive livestream across 25+ accounts where fans controlled every fight, reveal and moment in real time. The results: 500K interactions, 5M+ impressions and 3M+ minutes watched. They called it a “flawless victory.” The numbers don’t disagree.
Cactus had one of the more unusual briefs of the year: three lottery clients — Colorado Lottery, North Carolina Education Lottery and Hoosier Lottery — all launching the same product on the same day. The product was Millionaire for Life, the biggest daily-available prize in lottery history. Rather than force a single campaign across three very different markets, Cactus built three distinct campaigns native to each state and its players, each one designed to feel like a local story rather than a national rollout.
🔍 Your Consumers Already Moved On from Google
The search behavior shift is real and it has receipts.
Eight Oh Two Marketing published the findings from their 2026 AI + Search Behavior Study — 500 active AI users surveyed, and the headline finding is pointed: consumers now turn to AI for discovery, clarity and trust before they type a word into Google. The implication for brands is direct: if you’re not AI-visible, you may not even make the shortlist. The full study lays out what “answer-ready” content looks like in practice and what happens when your SERP presence doesn’t match your AI summary.
SRH had a pointed companion take for the week — should your brand show up in AI search? The TL;DR, they said, might surprise you. Their Empirical Marketing Dispatch makes a practical case for how brands can actually make it happen.
😎 Dispatches from Austin
SXSW is in full swing and the indie community has opinions about it.
Fuse Create didn’t show up at SXSW EDU with a booth — they showed up with a sunglasses store. Each pair represented a different career path, rooted directly in the brand benefit of their client Britebound. Simple concept, strong execution, and they exceeded lead generation goals by 40%. That’s the kind of outcome that makes the “booth or experience” debate a lot simpler.
George P Johnson Experience Marketing partnered with IBM to bring the AI Sports Club to SXSW — a full Scuderia Ferrari immersive experience featuring an F1 simulator, agility challenges, and behind-the-scenes Tifosi moments woven through the whole thing. It’s a strong demonstration of how AI and fandom can meet in physical space.
Quality Meats Creative has Joe Burns on a SXSW panel today with Sofia Colucci and Andy C. to tackle the research-versus-bold-creative tension. Their take: “When done right, research doesn’t kill bold ideas — it makes them more better.” The double comparative is deliberate and it’s funny. Go if you’re in Austin.
👑 Inc. Female Founders 500 Gets It Right
A list worth paying attention to.
Inc. Magazine’s 2026 Female Founders 500 recognized some names the indie community will know well.
Hatch CEO & Founder Jennifer Harrington made the list alongside a stat worth sitting with: fewer than 1% of agencies are women-owned. The recognition landed during Women’s History Month and the timing wasn’t lost on the team.
Joan Creative founders Lisa Clunie and Jaime Robinson were also recognized, with their team framing it as a reflection of “the Modern Legends they are” and the ones they’re building daily with clients.
Corner Table Creative co-founders Rachel Brandt and Madeline Meade made the 500 and noted a detail worth highlighting: three of their own clients also made the list — TALEA Beer Co. co-founders LeAnn Darland and Tara Hankinson, and Angela Vranich, co-founder of Little Spoon. That kind of overlap says something about who they build relationships with.
🏒 Women’s Sports, Present Tense
Not emerging. Here.
Noble People did the media work for the PWHL during the moment it mattered most — as cultural attention around the Olympics pushed women’s hockey into the mainstream, the team led media planning and buying for the league, moving quickly to secure high-impact placements exactly when interest was peaking. “Women’s sports aren’t emerging anymore,” they wrote. “They’re here, and they’re electric.” 61 PWHL players representing all 8 Olympic teams are the reason the momentum exists, and Noble People helped make sure the league’s story showed up where it needed to.
Atlantic New York built campaigns for all six League One Volleyball teams this season — each one rooted in the identity, pride and attitude of its home market. Atlanta. Bring Your A. Nebraska. State of Legends. Salt Lake City. High Attitude. The approach is the right one: don’t flatten six distinct audiences into a single idea. Campaign US has the full story.
🎂 Years Well Spent
A 40th, a 10th, and a strategic acquisition.
H/L Agency hit 40 years this week. Chairman/CEO Trey Curtola reflected on the agency’s story in a conversation with Indie Agency News — touching on how keeping everything in-house, moving with the speed that independence allows, and building a dedicated data and insights department have defined how they work across four decades.
Quirk Creative marked 10 years since founders Meryl Draper and Gaelan Draper launched the shop from a San Francisco studio apartment. They’ve recently rebranded and one number from their LBBonline feature stands out: the majority of their commercial directors are women, something they connect directly to their strong femhealth client roster. “We know what performs,” Meryl said. “Our work has driven billions in sales and value for our clients.”
Public Inc. announced the acquisition of Rocket Social Impact, a U.S.-based agency focused on helping organizations turn social impact strategy into results. Melanie Newell steps in as President of Public U.S. to lead the combined team — a move that puts strategy and execution under one roof as Public deepens its North American footprint.
✨ Work Worth Stopping For
The kind that reminds you why any of this matters.
Preston Spire took Best of Show at the 2026 AdFed Show for “Project Lockdown — Gun Lock Stand,” made for Teachers Unify to End Gun Violence. “Three words that hit differently,” they wrote, “when the work that earned it wasn’t selling something — it was saving something.” Creative director Brett Essman drove it. Donations to the organization are open.
Klick is partnering with The Snow League on Crash Patch — a first-of-its-kind helmet sticker built to turn red when an athlete takes an impact of 75G or more. Fast Company covered it and used the word “genius.” It’s hard to argue with that assessment.
Gus is marking today the right way: before they moved into their 175 Rivington space in New York, the building was Rivington Tattoo. So for Friday the 13th, they’re bringing the parlor back for one day only — free tattoos from Tiny Zaps, goods from Harry’s and Vacation Inc., and the kind of brand activation that doesn’t need a brief to explain itself. RSVP if you’re in the neighborhood.
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Kyle O’Brien is managing editor of Indie Agency News.
