The common thread across the news over the last week is that Indie Agency News members weren’t waiting around. The Ad Age A-List dropped and several came away with some of the most significant recognition the industry offers. Meanwhile, in the creative work itself, there were road safety campaigns built to move people, a sports fandom framework being built in public, and — at Preacher — a golden retriever closing a brand deal with remarkable ease.
🏆 The Year the A-List Recognized the Indies
Ad Age’s annual reckoning arrived — and the indie side of advertising had a particularly good few days.
Rethink topped the A-List this year, prompting Rethink’s global chief strategy officer, Sean McDonald to tell Ad Age: “We try to run the business on good, not growth.” Tombras, Highdive, Mischief and Innocean USA also made the Top 10.
Special U.S. was named Ad Age’s Independent Agency of the Year — the full weight of that designation landing on an agency that has built its identity around the power of the big idea.
Highdive returned to the A-List at #3 for the third straight year — a consistency that’s harder to sustain than a first-time appearance.
WorkInProgress was named a Standout — the agency’s own words captured it well: “equal parts delighted and humbled.”
Mother was named Independent Agency Network of the Year — a recognition that reflects what the organization has built across offices and markets over years of consistent creative output.
Pereira O’Dell’s Mona Munayyer Gonzalez was named A-List Executive of the Year — the team’s reaction, “proud is an understatement,” is the right temperature for a recognition that specific.
Mischief @ No Fixed Address capped the indie wave with a look back at their A-List presence from 2021 to 2026 — five years of showing up when the rankings land.
🏟️ Sports Fandom Needs a Better Design
What brands owe fans — and what the industry is building in response.
Two Things kicked off a four-part Design Challenge series on the future of sports fandom, the first focused on Fan Access. Their framing is direct: in a fragmented, paywalled, platform-splintered landscape, if fandom is sacred, access shouldn’t feel like a maze. It’s part of their white paper “The Business of Belonging,” and it’s the kind of strategic framework that brands in sports should be sitting with.
OS Studios announced a partnership with Major League Rugby to handle broadcast production and fan engagement — bringing their production infrastructure to one of the fastest-growing league properties in North America.
🛣️ Work That Makes You Feel Something
Two briefs, two very different executions — both built with clarity.
Ardmore released a pair of road safety campaigns for the Department for Infrastructure in Northern Ireland — “Priorities” and “Control or Speed” — built around the kind of emotional directness this category demands, without the melodrama.
Preacher found the brand metaphor for Hertz in a golden retriever — the “win-win-woof” framing is the kind of creative instinct that makes you wonder why more brand briefs don’t start from a place of immediate likability.
💬 The Honest Takes
On client briefs, fragmented attention, and why product launches fail — three things worth your time.
Left Off Madison put something important in writing: they never fully trust the client brief. It’s not cynicism — it’s a discipline. The post breaks down why the best creative work starts by questioning what you’ve been handed, not accepting it.
PB& made the case that attention was once centralized and predictable — you bought it and it was there. The agencies building smarter systems around today’s fragmented reality are the ones positioned to win the next decade.
based.marketing went straight at product launch failure — specifically, why most brands end up at the wrong destination because they’ve been tracking the wrong metrics from the start.
📈 Results Worth Noting
A casual dining leader hits number one. A regional ranking gets settled. A financial services client wins.
Doe-Anderson’s client Texas Roadhouse just became the #1 casual dining brand in the country, per the Wall Street Journal. In a category being squeezed from every direction by costs and competition, that’s a meaningful client result.
22squared was ranked the #1 independent agency in Atlanta in the Atlanta Business Chronicle’s annual rankings — a position built through consistent presence in a competitive market.
McKinney’s client Plymouth Rock Assurance took home a Gramercy Institute Award — recognition for financial services marketing in a category that doesn’t make effectiveness easy to earn.
🔄 The Moves
New leadership, a new board seat and a brand integration worth watching.
Laughlin Constable named Tim Hogan as EVP, Head of Connected Experiences — a hire built around the intersection of data, digital and human connection that brands are increasingly pulling their agencies toward.
TRG’s CSO Christopher Ferrel joined the Business Council for the Arts board in Dallas — and is also part of a new gallery concept at Dallas Arts Tower that turns a public commercial space into curated cultural experience.
Friends Everywhere launched the first entry in a documented integration partnership with Vans — sharing the behind-the-scenes reality of what it takes to build a brand relationship in real time, published on Substack. It’s a rare transparency move in an industry that usually edits the story after the fact.
🌸 March 8, in Specifics
International Women’s Day generated many posts. These three went somewhere particular.
Chameleon Collective’s Elise Marquis (de Saint Didier) ran the LA Marathon on International Women’s Day — 26.2 miles on the day the world paused to recognize women in leadership. The observation that drove the post: leadership, endurance and ambition don’t clock out when the workday ends.
Stoltz Marketing Group led with the number: women drive 85% of consumer purchasing decisions. Their question — if women control the buying, why aren’t they running more of the rooms where those decisions are marketed to — is the one that deserved asking.
Partners + Napier’s Sharon Napier took a different angle — spotlighting female agency founders specifically — a still-rare group whose story of building something from scratch deserves its own recognition beyond a single day.
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Kyle O’Brien is managing editor of Indie Agency News.
