Indie Agency News members spent the weekend doing what they do best — making the kind of moves that keep the industry interesting. Harvard Business Review published research that basically says your privacy policy might be your most underrated growth lever (with a 12.31% patronage lift to prove it). An indie shop got an Emmy nomination for a short film narrated by Jon Stewart. And one agency decided the best thing to do with its creative collective was… open a flower shop. Meanwhile, Highdive is having the kind of week that makes holding company execs quietly close their browser tabs. Here’s what’s worth knowing.
🏠 The House That Highdive Built
Five wins, one week. Someone check on the competition.
Highdive was named Wayfair’s new creative agency of record, a major win for their New York office with work already underway for holiday 2026 and beyond.
Not content with just the AOR win, Highdive also put Jake from State Farm into Netflix’s “Running Point” alongside Chet Hanks — a branded entertainment play that landed an Adweek exclusive.
The Clios came calling too, with two shortlists — State Farm’s “Batman vs. Bateman” and Jeep’s “Billy Goes to the River.” Add in BetMGM’s Court of Legends live event in Vegas and a KFC Finger Lickin’ Machine track on Spotify, and you’ve got an agency week that most shops would spread across a quarter.
🔒 The 12% Privacy Premium
When your data policy becomes your best growth lever.
Response Media turned Harvard Business Review research into a practical breakdown that deserves attention: brands with strong privacy reputations saw a 12.31% lift in customer patronage. Not because they had a better product — because they were trusted. They distilled it into a 4-slide carousel with three concrete moves teams can act on today. For anyone still treating privacy as a legal checkbox, this is the nudge.
📺 Fresh Work Worth Your Time
From 4.3 million views to public health campaigns that land differently.
Saylor proved that platform-native storytelling still wins at scale. Their Tubi team created a social-first compilation celebrating Queen Latifah’s birthday using clips from Bringing Down the House, earning 4.3M+ views and 418K likes across channels. The math on cultural timing checks out.
X&O found the Venn diagram between Verizon’s best network and Connor Storrie’s best asset — the universal dread of the butt dial. The Marketing Brew breakdown on how they got there is worth your time. (Also, a Venn diagram kind of looks like a butt.)
TRG launched “Dear Mom” for MemorialCare Miller Children’s & Women’s Hospital — a cinematic campaign that shifts the lens in maternity care back to the woman at the heart of it all. In a category that almost always focuses on the baby, this is a love letter to Mom.
Duncan Channon is running custom social content for the #NotYourLabRat campaign with UNDO and the California Department of Public Health, framing Big Nicotine as experimenting on young brains.
Birdie Mgmt worked with Amy Schumer on a Midi Midlife Health Class spot that brings honesty and humor to a topic many women are still hesitant to discuss publicly.
🏆 Hardware Season
Emmy nods, Clio shortlists, and Webby votes still open.
Colossus just picked up an Emmy nomination for “One Powerful Place,” a short film featuring the teachers and students at The New England Center for Children, narrated by Jon Stewart. Autism awareness, told through the voices that matter most.
David&Goliath scored a Clio shortlist for “Watch What You Post” with the Child Rescue Coalition — an Audio Craft nod for work that reminds people to rethink what they share online.
Serviceplan Group has been shortlisted for Campaign UK’s Global Network of the Year, one of the most competitive categories in the program. Winners announced in London in June, right before Cannes.
McKinney is pulling double duty — rallying Webby votes for Popeyes’ Pickle Quest (voting closes April 16) while placing three executives on New York Festivals Executive Juries, including Co-CCO Omid Amidi as Jury President for Baked In NYC.
TogetherWith landed dual Webby nominations for Amplifier’s ENCODED, an unsanctioned exhibition that reimagined the American Wing of The Met through 17 Indigenous artists and augmented reality — up for both Best Use of AR and Best Community Engagement. Voting is open through April 16.
Mintz + Hoke earned recognition from the Gramercy Institute’s Financial Marketing Strategy Awards for reframing Citizens Commercial Banking’s Payment Trends report from trend analysis to forward-looking guidance.
🧠 The Case for Independence
Why the smartest brands keep picking the small shops.
Oberland co-founder Bill Oberlander brought Michaels Stores VP of Marketing Aimee Berger onstage at the Unfettered indie agency summit hosted by the AD Club of NY. Her take on why independence works for retail: “Green lighting ideas faster, pivoting in real time, removing layers and internal politics — things need to move at the speed of retail.” And on creative risk: “Not taking a risk is riskier.”
White Rabbit Group hosted John Dunleavy — nearly four decades leading global agencies at Ogilvy, McCann, and Publicis — on their Pixel Perfect podcast. When asked what transfers from big agency structures to building an indie shop, he was blunt: “I’m not sure that they do.” What does? Relationships. Talent. Trust. Creativity.
Public Inc. CEO Phillip Haid shared thoughts in Forbes on why good intentions aren’t enough in impact marketing — brands need to talk about their purpose more clearly to make it stick.
Model B featured TheKey CMO Emma Zumsen in a Beyond the Brief conversation about marketing in-home care. Her rule for marketers in high-stakes categories: “Hold space for both the spreadsheet and the grief.” That’s not a tagline — that’s a leadership philosophy.
🌱 New Frontiers
A flower shop, an outdoor division, and 100+ pieces of creator content in one weekend.
SuperBloom House opened a literal flower shop — a retail store supporting the 300+ creators in their creative collective. Artists get 100% of sales. As they put it: “We make stuff beyond ads because we are hell-bent on creating media where it doesn’t exist.” This is what happens when an agency decides its best next move is a storefront.
Noble People launched Noble People Outdoor, a flexible OOH planning and activation offering led by Mariana Skeadas. Built for brands that want to test into outdoor without overcommitting — fewer placements, better placements, with modern measurement tying real-world exposure to business outcomes.
Worldwide Partners highlighted how TSA’s creator partnership with Stena Line generated 100+ pieces of content in a single weekend by empowering creators to tell their own stories. Paid amplification outperformed every other media channel by 30%. A textbook example of cross-agency collaboration — Ardmore in Belfast brought in London-based TSA for their influencer expertise.
The Many published “Be the Moon” on The Participation Exchange, exploring what happens when brands stop pushing and start pulling. The physics, they argue, are surprisingly literal.
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