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A Horror Movie You Can Only Watch During an Oil Change (and Other Ways to Get Remembered)
Indie Spin: The one with sludge, soup in a bag, and a cranberry baseball glove.
Luxury Sells a Feeling. This Fragrance Sells a Lifeline
Doctors Without Borders and Mediaplus Germany turned the perfume sample into a surprising case for basic medical care in crisis regions.
Why So Many Agencies Hit a Cash Wall in March (and What to Do About it)
Q4 billings feel like a cushion. Slow payments and upfront costs drain it by Q1 — here’s how to forecast cash before it runs out.
40% of One Agency’s YouTube Budget Went to Music Videos. Nobody Knew
A campaign can hit every benchmark and still send a big share of its budget somewhere nobody chose. Here’s how to check yours.
How Checkers & Rally’s Made a Wild ’80s Idea the Safe Bet
The brand asked for blue-sky thinking and a 40th birthday. The answer was Yung Gravy, a Kenny Loggins flip and a lesson in selling the big swing
Peak Brooklyn? Cricket Wireless Put Voicemails on Vinyl
ARGONAUT and its long-standing client brought a live lathe to DUMBO — and fit right in with the borough’s record shops
Domino’s Made a Pizza Shaped Like a Block. Minecraft Noticed.
The new single-serve Domino brings 6 collectible boxes, a pizza cape and a cheesy pet to Minecraft Dungeons II’s first brand partnership
The Invisible Bill Indie Agencies Keep Paying
New research from Pathlabs and Ad Age finds 97% of independent agencies meet client expectations — and 52% feel it in their margins
Why Ardmore Group Bought a London Luxury PR Shop
The bet is that clients want specialists, not generalists. Its newest is Modus, a London luxury and fashion PR agency founded in 1987.
At 80, A-Basin Still Just Wants You to Ski
Cactus gives Colorado’s Legend a mustachioed spokesperson who would rather spend the ad budget on lift tickets in its 80th season
What Music City Sounds Like Without Music
Fire Kite and the CMA Foundation imagine the loss
A Haunted House’s Dirty Little Secret and Other Lessons in Getting Remembered
Indie Spin: The one with fish kisses, a soup in a bag, and a monster called Brandnesia.
From Junior Designer to CCO: Sinan Dagli’s 17 Years at BSSP
Sinan Dagli joined BSSP as a junior designer in 2009. Now its CCO, he talks about the rule that kept him, the walls he never hit and LA.
Panda Express in Fortnite, a Horror Film in the Oil Change Bay, and Other Notes From the Week After Advertising Week
Indie Spin: The one with a breastmilk savings account, an AR mural that pays the theater, and a search buyer who flipped his 90/10.
Was ist das? German Workers Get Paid Time Off to Play the Year’s Biggest Video Game
Instead of calling in sick for the November 19 launch, German employees can book a 3-day accredited course built around the game.
That Cable Junk Mail You’re Getting? It’s Great as a Paper Crane
Bray & Co’s Junk Mail Makeover for Fidium Fiber Internet turns the mailers cable companies keep sending into cranes, airplanes and fortune tellers
A Bengals Fan in Iceland Set Off an Agency Swap
Curiosity sent a design director to Reykjavik, Brandenburg sent a founder to Cincinnati and the swap may become an employee benefit
McKinney Health Built a Practice on Listening
Laura Catalusci joins to lead L.E.A.P., an ambassador program built on ongoing conversations with the people living the health story
After 76 Years, Preston Spire Is Now Meerkat
Minnesota’s oldest independent agency took the partners’ names off the door and rebuilt itself around a pack of scrappy thinkers
Scam Alert: A Fake Media Brief Is Making the Rounds
An independent agency caught an imposter posing as a GoPro marketing manager, with a lookalike website and 1 file that gave it away.
StratFest Sees Strategy at the Center of the Marketing Engine
The long-running event finds strategy growing in importance as AI changes the game
Grit Doesn’t Do Timesheets — It Does 35 Rounds (if Needed)
The Denver design-led shop trades billable hours for flat fees, 5 p.m. exits and as many rounds as the work needs
Cup Noodles Gave Its Socials to a Vampire
Cornett hands Cup Noodles’ social channels to a 300-year-old influencer with one small problem
Why Van’s General Store Turns 1 Brief Into 16 Films
Scott Carlson and Liev Schreiber built a 14-year-old bi-coastal shop on a simple premise: respect the ask, then make it bigger