Indie Agency News members have been busy doing what they do best — making things that are hard to ignore. This week’s batch includes an agency that turned creator selection into a math problem (and won awards for it), another that built a fake news show for marshmallow Peeps, and a third that helped announce a zombie apocalypse alpha test through a mysterious broadcast. Between Effie finalists, Webby honorees, and an AI-discovery shake-up to earned media, the indie world is stacking evidence that you don’t need a holding company to hold attention.
🏆 The Awards Are Getting Interesting
When the work proves itself with results, not just vibes.
Highdive landed three Effie finalists across two brands — KFC’s “Kentucky Fried Comeback”, State Farm’s “Batman vs. Bateman,” and State Farm’s “Severance.” Effies reward work that performs, not just work that looks good on a reel, and a three-finalist haul from a single indie shop says something.
Bandits & Friends earned an Effie finalist nod for Care.com’s “When It’s Not You, It’s Care.com” — a campaign built on the premise that great ideas don’t matter if they don’t work.
Cornett picked up Webby Honoree status for Neigh-i, the world’s first horse-powered travel planner built for VisitLEX. If you’re keeping track, that’s a real AI tool that plans your trip to Kentucky — powered by horses. The internet approved.
McKinney is a five-time Shorty Awards finalist this year, with nods for Popeyes’ Pickle Quest, Voices of Alzheimer’s “Check, Mate,” and two Little Caesars campaigns — Pretzel Crust Island and Ides of March.
Fohr made the Shorty Awards finalist list in three categories for its work with The RealReal, where it built predictive intelligence technology that makes creator selection mathematical instead of emotional. In its initial controlled experiment, the predictive model outperformed traditional selection.
🎮 Campaigns That Made People Pay Attention
Creative that stopped thumbs and started conversations.
Agency Noir partnered with The NPC Guild to announce Undead Labs’ first-ever Alpha playtest for State of Decay 3 through a mysterious broadcast — a creative activation that matched the game’s post-apocalyptic energy. Separately, Agency Noir’s Costa Rica rainforest documentary for Basecamp Research, “Decoding the Tree of Life,” earned a NW Emmy nomination.
Curiosity created “Wake up PEEPS”, a fake viral news program for PEEPS featuring “all the news you’ve been sleeping on — from the candy you’ve definitely been sleeping on.” A news show for marshmallow chicks. That’s the kind of idea you either love or wish you’d thought of first.
Highdive also launched Chapter 2 of the Colonel’s “Kentucky Fried Comeback” for KFC — described as “a maverick, a badass, a Finger Lickin’ Machine obsessed with serving up a lotta chicken for a little price.” Plus, the BetMGM Court of Legends brought dunkers, streetballers, and the Cavinder Twins to Las Vegas for a $2M live competition.
Duncan Channon rolled out its “Not Your Lab Rat” campaign for undotobacco, highlighting the dangers of nicotine pouches — the risks we know and the ones we’re still finding out.
Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners is bringing “Unleash Legendary” to Kikkoman, celebrating 350 years of craft and lore in soy sauce. When you open a bottle, apparently, you unleash legendary stuff.
🧠 Thinking Out Loud
Ideas about the industry, not just the work.
Yes& Agency is asking the question that should keep every comms team up at night: what if visibility is no longer about earning the click, but about being cited by AI? VPs Jessica Antle and Chrissie Koeppen explore how AI discovery is reshaping earned media in a MediaPost article.
Mnstr took the stage at Advertising Week Europe 2026 to argue that relevance is no longer bought — it’s negotiated and earned. In a world where cultural identities form in private Discord servers and subculture-led TikTok corners, brands can’t just “advertise” their way in.
PB& made the case that your brand strategy isn’t the strategy — the work is. They’ve sat in rooms where the strategy deck was immaculate, “four-quadrant frameworks, stakeholder maps, a positioning statement that took eleven rounds to land,” and then nothing happened.
VaynerMedia says live social shopping is the biggest opportunity for brands and creators right now — calling it the “QVC-ification of social media.”
Chameleon Collective brought the numbers: $6.88 trillion is where global ecommerce is headed, representing 21% of all retail worldwide.
🎤 People & Stages
Indie leaders showing up where it counts.
Mischief @ No Fixed Address had a week. Ad Age launched its Substack by asking Mischief why it’s on Substack — fair question. Bianca Guimaraes appeared on The Ad Podcast breaking down how brands show up in culture. And the agency is prepping a POSSIBLE Miami keynote on why the riskiest thing a brand can do is be ignorable.
Yes& Agency CEO Zihla Salinas Arbit was named a Top Woman in Marketing by Chief Marketer.
McKinney Executive Directors Jennifer Lo Sicco and Anita Schillhorn van Veen were selected for The Gerety Awards jury.
Colossus ECD Greg Almeida headed to Emerson College for a presentation and panel discussion on the creative mindset. It’s free and there’s food. Allegedly.
GYK attended The Ad Club’s 2026 Women’s Leadership Forum at Gillette Stadium, featuring the first American woman to ski solo to the South Pole, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and an astronaut, among others.
🏢 Indie Life
Retreats, rebrands, and the business of being independent.
Venables Bell and Partners made the recordings from the inaugural Unfettered Independent Creative Agency Summit available for viewing — a summit Paul Venables hosted after 25 years of building VB+P, featuring discussions on the future of independent creativity.
Terri & Sandy brought on John Gibson as Partner and first-ever Chief Strategy Officer — formerly Head of Strategy at Anomaly, Ogilvy, and Droga5. Their distinction: “There are two kinds of strategy. The kind that sits in a slide deck, and the kind that makes shit happen.”
The Charles Group held its “REWire” retreat, taking stock of what they built, what they learned, and where they’re going — including a finance exercise that apparently turned some heads.
Powell Communications took a full Bird by Bird Day — their annual wellness holiday — in disconnect mode. Spa visits, beach reads, whatever fills the cup.
Fact & Fiction announced four promotions: Brendan to Creative Director, Kami to Associate Director of Social Media, Ben to Executive Producer, and Ryan to Associate Creative Director.
Fuse Create welcomed Grant Cleland as Creative Director, bringing what they call “a Possibilitarian vibe” and an advertising + design background.
📡 Media, Tech & Retail
Where the money’s moving and the platforms are shifting.
22squared Group Director Taylor Southerland spoke at the MediaPost Planning and Buying Insider Summit about a key insight: fandom doesn’t end at the final whistle. Sports media is one of the most complex spaces in marketing right now, but the game is just the beginning.
Grain Group came back from Shoptalk 2026 buzzing about agentic retail media with Criteo and meetings with partners like Klaviyo and Walmart, plus brainstorming with clients at NOBULL.
Moonrock is tracking the shift where game worlds aren’t just where people play anymore — they’re where stories are born, franchises are built, and the next generation of IP takes shape across Roblox, Fortnite, and beyond.
Mintz + Hoke created the OnMed virtual care experience at Bradley International Airport with Hartford HealthCare — reimagining airport media as a platform for healthcare, earning a MediaPost Planning & Buying Insider Summit finalist spot.
Joybyte declared the era of “commodity UGC” officially over. Audiences can spot a forced “shoutout” in the first two seconds and are already programmed to scroll past it.
🎬 Making Things
Film, production, and the craft behind the craft.
Revery premiered its documentary “Fork in the Road” to a sold-out audience at the Sonoma Film Festival, about people reconnecting us to the land and innovating in farming.
Barbarian partnered with the Wildlife Conservation Society for the second annual REEL WILD Film Festival, bringing conservation stories into New York City through a citywide OOH campaign that placed wildlife into everyday moments.
Witness Me highlighted ArtClass director Vincent Peone’s “Born for This” campaign for Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices — moving away from transactional real estate advertising into cinematic, human-centric storytelling.
Klick got its CSC-867-5309 campaign for Cancer Support Community featured in MM+M, reworking an ’80s classic to raise cancer support awareness. The agency also had its Peak Exposure melanoma awareness campaign featured in Clube de Criação, where what looks like mountain photography reveals something more serious.
Stoltz Marketing Group walked through how the team turns a tight deadline into a standout issue of “The Lead”, the biannual magazine for Snake River Farms.
Indie Agency News members are out here building things worth paying attention to. If your indie agency isn’t in here yet, join IAN and change that.
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