Anomaly Is Adweek's 2022 US Agency of the Year
December 11, 2022
In the back of their minds, most agency leaders are doing math. Figuring out how many pitches they must invest in is a preoccupation. “It’s just about survival, right?” Franke Rodriguez, Anomaly’s New York CEO, posited.
But Anomaly’s leaders aren’t worried about that.
Last year, the creative agency declined 60% of new business opportunities. It’s in a position to say no, according to Rodriguez, who would rather go “all in” winning a handful of pitches than cast a wide net.
“If we want three new pillar clients this year, then we should really only do three to five pitches,” he said. “You win the ones you say yes to, and then you go all in on delivering it.”
Anomaly’s 16 new business wins include those it went “all in” on, like Dunkin’, Bud Light, Vans, Topgolf and Hoka. It also landed several project-based assignments, all contributing to its 19% annual revenue growth.
Selectivity and wins are impressive, but Anomaly earned Adweek’s 2022 U.S. Agency of the Year award because of how it masterfully manages convergence. Agencies are adding to their plates and developing more similarities than differences to consultancies like Deloitte or Accenture. Agencies that try to be “everything to everyone” face criticism. But by remaining shrewd, even as it invested in Web3 expertise and announced a new media practice in October, Anomaly managed to position itself as the rare agency defying norms and becoming a master of all trades without sacrificing depth or quality.
“I don’t even know that they would call themselves an advertising agency. I think about them as a conglomerate of business transformation thinkers,” said Ally’s chief marketing and PR officer Andrea Brimmer, noting that the two companies recently broadened their relationship, with Anomaly taking on Ally’s social business.
STATS
Key wins: Bud Light, Vans, Topgolf, Hoka.
Losses: None, except completed project-based work. It also declined to pitch Dick’s Sporting Goods, which embraced a “jump ball” agency model.
Revenue: Up 19% from 2021.
Strategic moves: Creating new brands and go-to-market models for Unilever’s “The Uncovery” incubator, investing in its Web3 offering and announcing its media practice.
Diversity: Among this year’s U.S. hires, 47% self-identify as BIPOC. This year, the agency built a diversity dashboard displaying aggregated self-identification data, filterable by department, level and office. It partners with the 4A’s Vanguard program (it hosts 15 program participants), and with Adcolor and the Lower Eastside Girls Club, where 15 Anomaly women serve as mentors. Anomaly also partners with Afropunk founders Matthew Morgan and Jocelyn Cooper to deliver strategy, branding and design for the Let’s Get FR.EE global music festival.
A cast of characters
Expanding remit without sacrificing the cachet that earned it silver and bronze Cannes Lions this year comes from investing in talent, according to Anomaly’s leaders.
The CEO saw tenacity in Chris Neff, who he hired this summer as Anomaly’s global head of emerging experience and technology. Neff’s already selling a Web3 incubator to Ally, and Anomaly built Neff’s thinking into an initial creative response for an important 2023 Johnnie Walker brief.
“Chris Neff is someone who I got really, really nerdily excited about,” said Rodriguez.
Eliminating the burnout-inducing hustle culture that has led many to flee the industry for good is also important to Anomaly leaders. This year, the agency expanded employee benefits, increased annual leave and formed a Content Review for Equitable Work group to assess if agency work is equitably created and socially conscious.
Rodriguez is also thrilled about having gotten boomerang employee Joanne Peters back from her global creative operations vp role at Peloton to serve as Anomaly’s general manager. Peters was “critical” in delivering Bud Light, he said. She masterminded the winning pitch team and discouraged leaders from putting the “same cast of characters” on the job.
Cross-pollination
A whole cast of Anomaly characters did indeed unite to pull off the Bud Light win. Philosophically, Laura Rowan, head of strategy at Anomaly NY, believes every employee is both strategic and creative. Strategists and creatives keep close, and “cross-pollination” with other practices, like Neff’s Web3 practice or the soon-to-be-launched media group, bolsters the work.
As the No. 1 light beer in the world, Bud Light is also faced with the “huge hurdle” of differentiating itself within an expanding beer category. So Rowan approached the pitch like an archaeologist.
“What I strive for is equal parts correct and compelling thinking. Rooting everything in that rigorous foundation and then finding ways to make it really compelling, really emotionally charged, is all part of the magic,” Rowan said.
When Anomaly began work with Expedia Group, Hector Muelas, the brand’s svp, global marketing and creative, told the agency it wanted Anomaly to be an extension of its own team, making Expedia and Anomaly employees indistinguishable. This integrated mindset can present billing complications for agencies, said Muelas.
The Anomaly team embraced integration, telling its Expedia counterparts that experimenting with different kinds of models is part of what it means to be an anomaly and necessary for the agency to live up to its name. “They have adapted their model to our needs, as opposed to the other way around,” said Muelas.
Anomaly is working with Expedia to launch the travel entity’s first loyalty program, One Key. It has a hand in Expedia’s other projects, too, such as supporting partnerships with hotels, airlines and other hospitality groups with campaigns.
‘The work they deserve’
Anomaly impressed Bud Light with its culture, but its relationship with Ally, for which it manages marketing, TV, brand activations, digital transformation, customer loyalty and membership models, and innovation, is the proof of concept that demonstrates its capabilities.
When Anomaly started working with Ally nearly five years ago, Ally concluded its review with what Brimmer described as “an embarrassment of riches.” The brand paid agencies to participate, plucking Anomaly from a group of elite competitors, including Wieden+Kennedy, Venables Bell & Partners, Crispin Porter Bogusky, 72andSunny and Translation.
Ally’s brief asked agencies to do one thing: Make it a famous brand.
“In our first session with them, it was very clear that they were a very different kind of agency and that everything that they brought forward was rooted in the notion of effectiveness and business transformation and deep, deep strategic chops,” said Brimmer.
Rowan recognized Ally leaders’ ambition to do brand work while making a cultural impact. Ally’s “Watch the Game, Change the Game” spot materialized from an ongoing conversation about how it could be an authentic ally to marginalized communities.
As of this October, Ally has reached its highest awareness of marketed products or companies in its history, based on data it gleaned from Morning Consult Brand Intelligence and Hansa Research. Ally’s name recognition has grown by 20% since it partnered with Morning Consult in 2017 to measure this metric.
“They’ve not only made us a famous brand, but I think they’ve done something more important, which is made us a brand that matters,” said Brimmer.
Embracing the ‘Anomalies’
The agency moved this year to West Hollywood from its previous office in Venice, Los Angeles, a home base for a coterie of LA creative agencies siloed away from West Hollywood’s more diverse communities.
“There’s no house tone, but a house ambition,” said Josh Fell, partner and CCO of Anomaly LA.
Employees are excited about creating the future from within a historical location, said Aisea Laungaue, partner and CSO of Anomaly LA. Charlie Chaplin once had a writers room in the studio. Now, in Anomaly’s “Chaplin” conference room, a wall mural reads, “We the audacious.”
Laungaue, who leads a majority minority team, told Adweek that hiring employees with different perspectives leads to coalescing viewpoints and to the agency’s secret sauce: cultural strategy, or eschewing the house style.
Fell wants the agency’s employees—its “Anomalies”—to be exactly that.
“A big part of what we saw as an opportunity was to be closer to where our diverse communities are,” said Laungaue. “Opening in West Hollywood and being closer to creative communities on the east side was part of trying to be more honest to ourselves about what the hell this Anomaly thing is going to mean. … Otherwise, it’s just a brand name.”
THE WORK
Expedia: “Made to Travel”
In Expedia’s 2022 Super Bowl spot, Ewan McGregor encourages viewers to invest in experiences, not things. But the campaign execution went deeper, with Anomaly helping Expedia launch its Made to Travel creative platform, which accommodates different executions that ladder up to the campaign’s big idea.
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Jane Walker by Johnnie Walker: “Angel City Football Club: Running With the Angels”
For the newly formed LA women’s soccer team, Angel City, the Diageo brand debuted a custom song by Alabama Shakes’ vocalist Brittany Howard and rapper Tia P. that underpinned a catchy feminist spot. The campaign represents and inspires underrepresented communities and champions gender equality.
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Ally: “When You Watch Me”
On the 50th anniversary of Title IX, Ally committed to giving an equal amount of ad dollars to women’s and men’s sports channels. Its spot asked viewers, “Do you watch sports?” and starred a cast of women athletes to drive home its point.
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Meta Quest 2: “Old Friends, New Fun”
The Super Bowl 56 spot tugged at viewers’ heartstrings when animatronic dog Howl’n Harry reaches the end of his glory days. After narrowly escaping the trash compactor, he finds a place greeting science museum visitors. But when someone places a VR headset on his head, he’s transported back to happier times.
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Hulu: “The Hulu Effect”
Hulu wants fans to “check in to their obsessions.” It means it literally—sort of. Anomaly LA created The Hulu Motel, a free activation open to ticket-holding patrons on a first come, first served basis. The real motel sported themed rooms peppered with nods to Hulu shows such as The Handmaid’s Tale, Bob’s Burgers and Atlanta.