Meet an Indie Agency: BackPocket Agency
February 6 @ 9:30 am – 10:00 am PST
20 years. Four agencies. Same two people watching the same cycle repeat.
Rene Ryan and Joe Stella have been through it together: agency scales up, sells to private equity, things change. They had more ideas about what not to do than what to do when they finally launched Back Pocket.
Chicago, where they built an agency in 16 months with nearly 25 clients. They’re nomads, squatting at partner offices for meeting rooms when they need them. All journalists, content strategists, and designers who lean hard into storytelling because that’s where they came from.
They’re in the relationship business first. That means going to client conferences, sitting with them at dinners, sending gifts when babies are born, and showing up at funerals. One client has a single person on their marketing team. Back Pocket becomes an extension of that team.
Here’s the story that stuck: Joe was at his son’s basketball tournament in Iowa when he spotted a Back Pocket beer from Back Pocket Brewery. It was a sign. When they settled on the name, Rene called the brewery, expecting a cease-and-desist. Instead, they got a collaboration. “Backstory Ale” is now a real thing.
They won a Maya Culture Award for Best Places to Work this year. 100% anonymous employee feedback. Their Chief Strategy Officer won Content Marketer of the Year. Built something in 16 months that agencies twice their size can’t match.
