Katy Hendricks has a mantra. Powell Communications interviews you like a therapist, PRs you like a publicist and plans like a strategist. It’s the kind of line that sounds rehearsed until you realize the agency has been doing it — with precision — for more than a quarter century. Rachel Powell founded the company roughly 26 years ago as the first communications agency built specifically for the advertising industry. Today, Hendricks serves as CMO, the team runs about 25 people deep, fully remote, and the client list reads like a who’s who of agencies and brands that need someone who speaks their language. Every single one of them is different. Powell’s job is to prove it.
The first comms agency built for the ad world — and still standing
Powell launched in a moment that sounds familiar: economic uncertainty, creative agencies reshuffling their comms teams and a lot of people wondering what happens next. Powell saw the gap and filled it. “It’s kind of a time similar to now,” Hendricks says. “There was a lot of uncertainty in the economy.”
What started as a bet on the ad industry became a 26-year operation spanning media relations, LinkedIn strategy, awards consulting, events, juries and everything in between. If it involves communications and the advertising world, Powell has a playbook for it.
What Powell is known for: knowing everybody and keeping it clean
The short answer is access. Powell has been embedded in the advertising industry long enough to know every reporter, every editor and every trade publication that matters. The longer answer involves a quiet skill — making competitive agencies sound nothing alike.
“No two agencies are alike,” Hendricks says. “Our job is to pull out the differentiation and pull that into your messaging and positioning.” When your client roster includes agencies that compete with each other, the ability to find the white space between them isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s the whole business.
3 strengths: tapped in, strategic and a genuinely good time
Hendricks boils it down to three things. First, Powell is tapped into the ad industry — that part is non-negotiable after 26 years. Second, they’re strategic. “We’re not just trying to get you press just to get you press,” she says. Every placement ladders up to a goal.
Third — and this is the one Hendricks clearly enjoys saying — they’re fun. “People like working with us because we’re fun and we like to have a good time and be an extension of our clients’ teams.” It’s the rare agency strength that can’t be faked on a capabilities deck.
No red tape, no return to office, no committees
Powell went fully remote in 2020 and never looked back. While holding companies wrestle with return-to-office mandates, Powell’s answer was simple: don’t. “We made a decision in 2020 to be fully remote, and that’s it,” Hendricks says.
Independence also means speed. Hendricks and CEO Lisa text throughout the day, staying on top of what’s happening with clients and in the world — no layers, no approvals, no waiting for someone three levels up to weigh in. “Happy people serve happy clients.” That’s the whole philosophy in six words.
Interview like a therapist, PR like a publicist, plan like a strategist
This is Powell’s pitch — and it’s a good one. The process starts with deep listening, pulling the real story out of clients who don’t always know how to articulate what makes them different. Then the publicist instincts take over, placing that story where it’ll land hardest. And behind it all, a strategic framework that ties every placement back to measurable goals.
The crisis comms side is just as sharp. “The best crisis plan is the crisis that doesn’t happen,” Hendricks says. Powell tells clients to be completely honest about what’s happening behind the scenes — and then helps them stay out of trouble before the trouble finds them.
Inc Best Workplaces, Digiday and a CEO who teaches business
Powell has won Inc Best Workplaces two years running and landed on Digiday’s best remote companies list. The culture isn’t built on ping pong tables or unlimited PTO branding — it’s built on flexibility, well-being and a genuine investment in making people better at their jobs.
CEO Lisa pushes the team beyond comms skills into broader business acumen. “How do you become a better professional in everything that you’re doing?” Hendricks says. That means real-time feedback, stretch assignments and client exposure that goes deeper than media lists and pitch emails.
Goth Girls Book Club and a foodie Slack that goes hard
Weirdos. No hesitation. When Powell went fully remote, the team didn’t retreat — they got creative. Slack channels multiplied. Virtual events got quirky. And the crown jewel emerged: the Goth Girls Book Club, which spent multiple years reading exclusively goth-girl books. “Now you decide what that means,” Hendricks says.
The club has since expanded its reading list and its membership — no longer women-only. There’s also a foodie channel where everyone posts pictures of what they’re eating. The vibe is less “corporate team building” and more “group chat you’d miss if you left.”
Dear Jimmy Fallon: we were there, and next time we’re getting the photo
Hendricks goes unconventional here. At Cannes last year, she and a client walked into a dinner at Les Misu and spotted a couple dancing. They joined in. The man turned around. It was Jimmy Fallon.
“I screamed out, ‘Oh my God, you’re Jimmy Fallon,’ and went and sat back down,” Hendricks says. No photo. No follow-up. Nothing. Fallon talked about the dance party all week in his Cannes interviews — but Hendricks and her team are in none of the photos because they got skittish and retreated to their table.
The message to Fallon: we were there, we’d love a rematch next year and this time, we’re getting it on video.
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