Assembly was crowned U.S. Media Agency of the Year, reflecting the impact its investments in data, talent, and technology have had on its clients’ businesses. The agency achieved a record client retention rate of 95%, which has resulted in tremendous growth, securing $30 million in new contracts and 25 net new clients including Carter’s Cole Haan, Vera Bradley, ONE, Inogen and Brooks Running. Additional factors contributing to the win include:

• Driving the largest revenue growth yet in a seven-year partnership with Ace Hardware;
• Executing a rebranding and repositioning at the holding-company level in collaboration with partners at Elevance Health and;
• Launching a first-of-its-kind loyalty program that helped Vivid Seats distinguished itself from competitors such as SeatGeek and StubHub, yielding a 250% growth in repeat user base and quadrupled brand searches.

GALE won U.S. Advertising Agency of the Year for its remarkable blend of advisory/consulting services, media, and storytelling expertise – a model that has driven clear results for client partners such as Chipotle and MilkPep. Editors celebrated the impact of GALE’s work in 2023, including:

• Chipotle’s Doppelganger campaign which generated $4.8 million in incremental revenue for the brand and 
• MilkPEP’s Wood Milk campaign exceeded expectations, garnering 18,000 Instagram followers in a week and 77 million social views.

Congratulations are also in order for 72andSunny and Code and Theory who were recognized as honorable mentions in the Advertising Agency and Digital Innovation categories. The agencies have a proven track record of recognition for business and creative transformation.

“We’re thrilled to be recognized as 2024 Advertising Agency of the Year,” GALE President and CEO Brad Simms said. “We take pride in crafting creative, data-driven campaigns that deliver tangible business results, and this award underscores the incredible work our team does across the board to tell our clients’ stories in compelling ways while helping their businesses grow.”

GALE has been recognized several times for its 120% year-on-year growth rate, strong new business pipeline, and standout client work. Campaigns spotlighted by the agency of the year award include the data-driven email campaign Chipotle Doppelganger, which won a Gold Cannes Lion, and Wood Milk, a humor-infused campaign that sparked a cultural conversation for MilkPEP.

Top industry accolades previously earned by GALE include Adweek’s Fastest Growing Agency of the Year, Ad Age’s A-List, Ad Age’s Data & Analytics Agency of the Year, Adweek’s Breakthrough Media Agency of the Year, the Grand Effie and a Gold Lion.

For more information on the Campaign U.S. award, visit: https://www.campaignlive.com/article/advertising-agency-2024-gale/1866007

CONTACT:
Lindsay Bennett
lindsay.bennett@galepartners.com
917 497 5582

About GALE
GALE is a Business Agency. We bring business insights to brand storytelling and activate across every channel. With expertise in business strategy, CRM, loyalty, brand storytelling, integrated, performance, creative, and content marketing, experience design and media, GALE creates marketing systems and communications that grow businesses. GALE delivers strong business outcomes for its partners in automotive, QSR, retail, gaming, entertainment, telecom and more. Founded in 2014, the agency currently has offices in New York, Singapore, Toronto, Denver, Los Angeles, London, Austin, Kansas City and Bengaluru. GALE has received top industry awards including Ad Age‘s A-List, Ad Age‘s Data & Analytics Agency of the Year, Adweek‘s Fastest Growing Agency and Adweek‘s Breakthrough Media Agency of the Year.

James commented, “It’s incredibly exciting to be welcomed into the Forsman & Bodenfors family, a brand we’ve long respected and indeed felt akin to in Europe. We’re looking forward to producing the best of Swedish-inspired creativity, delivered through a London lens – and alongside an agency that continues to embrace CPB London’s reputation for provocative ideas.”

Southgate commented, “Bringing Helen and her brilliant team into the family now makes this the real thing. With this unity, clients get scale, immediate impact, and a combined culture that’s unique to the market. We can do some incredible things together – the stars have aligned.”

The combination of the two agency teams now gives Forsman & Bodenfors a scaled offering in a globally significant market, and provides CPB London’s clients access to a robust global network of agency talent across key markets.

James will work alongside Johan Eghammer, F&B’s Head of Creative, who relocated to London last Summer. Eghammer, a highly awarded creative at Forsman for over two decades, was also previously executive creative director at Crispin Porter Bogusky in Boulder, Colorado.

CPB London has excelled in delivering consistently powerful work for both local and international clients. Recognised in the last two years for its award-winning work by The Burberry British Diversity Awards, The Drum, the British Arrows and the Gerety Awards, the agency also picked up Digiday’s global ‘Greater Good’ gong for its Mother’s Day Cards by Misogynists work and was highly commended Agency of the Year at the Campaign / PRWeek Purpose Awards ’23. 

Founded in 1986, Forsman & Bodenfors has achieved global recognition as one of the most awarded agencies in the world, including winning 100+ Cannes Lions and being named in the Top 3 agencies of the decade. The agency is known for its flat structure, radical approach to collaboration, and commitment to ideas that transform business and shift culture. The agency has received global acclaim for work including ‘Epic Split’ and the Live Test Series for Volvo Trucks, ‘E.V.A initiative’ and multiple launches and campaigns for Volvo Cars, ‘Discover the Originals’ for Visit Sweden, ‘Kami’ for Down Syndrome International, ‘Wow No Cow’ for Oatly, and ‘Marriage Market Takeover’ for SK-II. Forsman & Bodenfors is also the only global creative agency to have achieved gender pay equity as certified by Fair Pay Workplace.

“Bringing Forsman and CPB London together will further bolster Stagwell’s European footprint, enriching an already standout creative offering for our clients,” commented Stagwell EMEA CEO James Townsend. “This unity continues to build on the momentum of our strong European expansion, just weeks after we launched a regional hub at the Blue Fin Building in London and added two other agencies to the Stagwell EMEA umbrella – What’s Next Partners and Sidekick.”

About Forsman & Bodenfors:

Forsman & Bodenfors is a global creative collective transforming our clients’ businesses with ideas that change things. We work with some of the world’s most human brands including Volvo, Mandarin Oriental,  SK-II, Google, Goldman Sachs, Polestar, Diageo, P&G, Crocs, LG, General Mills and H&M. Forsman & Bodenfors is one of the most globally awarded agencies across creativity and innovation, with key accolades including Cannes Lions: Top 3 Independent Agency of the Decade; Contagious Pioneers; Fast Company: Most Innovative Companies; Digiday: Most Collaborative Culture.  Forsman and Bodenfors is also the first and only global creative agency to receive both the global 3% Certification, and global certification from Fair Pay Workplace. We have people across eight offices in Gothenburg, Stockholm, London, Dublin, New York, Singapore, Shanghai and Toronto.

About Stagwell:

Stagwell is the challenger network built to transform marketing. We deliver scaled creative performance for the world’s most ambitious brands, connecting culture-moving creativity with leading-edge technology to harmonize the art and science of marketing. Led by entrepreneurs, our 13,000+ specialists in 34+ countries are unified under a single purpose: to drive effectiveness and improve business results for their clients. Join us at www.stagwellglobal.com.

Contact:

Deborah Abraham: Deborah.abraham@forsman.com
Trudi Harris: tharris@cpbgroup.com 

Photo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2373905/Helen_James_and_Toby_Southgate.jpg

Logo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2373904/Forsman_Bodenfors_Logo.jpg

As Women’s History Month – or what many are now calling Women’s Empowerment Month – reminds us of the invaluable contributions made by women in and out of the workplace, we’re spotlighting the female CEOs who are new to the network (or new to their roles!), to celebrate the talent and leadership they bring to our community.

Join us in celebrating the inaugural Stagwell Class of 2024: Liz Castelli, Co-founder and CEO, Tinsel; Sarah Mehler, Co-founder and CEO, Left Field Labs; Elspeth Rollert, CEO, Stagwell Marketing Cloud; Lisa Chu, Co-CEO, Team Epiphany; and Laurel Burton, CEO, Instrument.

Follow along on Stagwell’s website and LinkedIn as we highlight their invaluable business insights and fun facts about themselves!

“The unveiling of Alchemy.Ai reshapes GALE as we know it, marking a massive shift in how we work and the democratization of data across all teams,” GALE CEO Brad Simms says. “When GALE was founded in 2014, we were first-to-market with our unique blend of creative and consultancy centered around data. While we’ve continued to build our model over the last decade to become one of the most celebrated agencies in North America, Alchemy.Ai is the most significant product update we’ve ever made.

“As an agency, our most important asset is our people. It’s why clients choose us. Alchemy.Ai enables our people to work smarter and faster, ultimately giving them more time to spend with clients.”

Trained on all aspects of data used at GALE, including both first-party and third-party data combined with world data, Alchemy.Ai reduces the time spent on critical tasks across all disciplines to help GALE’s almost 800 people work smarter, better and faster. In addition, it transforms agency processes by democratizing access to this information, regardless of department.

Going beyond standard generative AI functionality, Alchemy.Ai has a custom-built application layer with a bespoke UI, as well as additional capabilities for data visualization, enriched and customized algorithms, and search and discovery techniques. Team members will have access to the custom client environments built for the specific accounts they work on. The client environments serve as a one-stop shop for all the data and insights available on each particular client.

Alchemy.Ai has dedicated tools for core capabilities, including:

• Strategy: 20% increase in efficiency for data ingestion and cleanup, fostering deeper collaboration between strategists and data scientists. This optimization allows for faster generation of high-quality business diagnostics and recommendations for clients.
• Audience Insights: Democratizing access to GALE’s robust data environment will enable employees across all domains to query tens of thousands of variables from dozens of integrated sources within one platform using natural language. Reduced time to learn platforms, brief dedicated research teams, and await outputs will boost efficiency by 80%.
• Media Planning: Integrating historical media performance data with media reach and consumption data will generate media plans 20% faster. Within one platform, media planners will be able to explore the relevance and weighting of channels and tactics from more angles at the same time, with the help of optimization algorithms and the ability to iterate on a range of custom constraints.
• New Business: Leveraging a decade of archival documents to create an RFI response tool, trained on the voice of GALE’s CEO. This tool dramatically reduces the time and internal coordination necessary for new business responses from days to just 90 minutes.
• CRM: Harnessing client data to create deeply custom audience segments and provide performance-based communications recommendations. This further elevates GALE’s best-in-class loyalty offering.
• Operations: Simplifying administrative tasks and freeing up time, a concierge-style tool supports project delivery, timesheet tracking, and personalized responses to employee policy inquiries, such as healthcare coverage.

CONTACT: 
Lindsay Bennett
lindsay.bennett@galepartners.com  

“For the past 45 years we have been working to build the Fogo brand on a global scale. We are thrilled to partner with GALE to continue to increase our brand awareness and accelerate our growth strategy,” said Janet Gieselman, Chief Marketing Officer of Fogo de Chão. “Their track record of success and forward-thinking approach align perfectly with our vision and brand strategy.”

GALE will support Fogo de Chão in developing and driving an authentic, attention-grabbing articulation of its brand to increase affinity and business growth.

“We are proud to join forces with Fogo de Chão in their commitment to elevating the brand while evolving their guest’s dining experience,” said GALE CEO Brad Simms. “Our team is devoted to fostering success for all of our clients, and this partnership is another example of the value we bring with our integrated offering.”

For more information contact lindsay.bennett@galepartners.com

About GALE
GALE is a Business Agency. Founded in 2014, the agency currently has offices in New York, Singapore, Toronto, Denver, Los Angeles, London, Austin, Kansas City and Bengaluru. GALE has received top industry awards including Ad Age’s A-List, Ad Age’s Data & Analytics Agency of the Year, Adweek’s Fastest Growing Agency, the Grand Effie and Adweek’s Breakthrough Media Agency of the Year. For information on GALE, visit: https://gale.agency/. 

About Fogo de Chão
Fogo de Chão (fogo-dee-shown) is an internationally renowned restaurant that allows guests to discover what’s next at every turn. Founded in Southern Brazil in 1979, Fogo elevates the centuries-old cooking technique of churrasco – the art of roasting high-quality cuts of meat over an open flame – into a cultural dining experience of discovery. In addition to its Market Table and Feijoada Bar – which includes seasonal salads and soup, fresh vegetables, imported charcuterie and more – guests are served simply seasoned meats that are butchered, fire-roasted and carved tableside by gaucho chefs. Guests can also indulge in dry-aged or premium Wagyu cuts, seafood a la carte, Bar Fogo Features including signature cocktails, and an award-winning South American wine list, as well as smaller, sharable plates in Bar Fogo. Fogo offers differentiated menus for all dayparts including lunch, dinner, weekend brunch and group dining, plus full-service catering and delivery options. For locations and more information about Fogo de Chão, visit fogodechao.com.

This year’s winners reflect another transformative year of digital, creative, and tech-forward work from Stagwell’s network on behalf of leading brands including Amazon, HBO’s Max, National Football League, United Airlines, YETI, Tipico and more.

2024 award highlights include:

• 72andSunny named No. 8 on Ad Age’s 2024 Agency A-List after a breakthrough year of purpose-driven campaigns, including urging United Airlines to appoint “Sesame Street” puppet Oscar the Grouch as chief trash officer to highlight its sustainability initiatives, and the agency’s work for Blizzard Entertainment’s Diablo video game franchise—an effort that culminated in driving the fastest-selling title in the company’s history. Additionally, 72andSunny’s partnership with the NFL throughout 2023 championed the future of the game at the Super Bowl and ultimately propelled flag football into the Olympic spotlight. 
• Code and Theory named Business Transformation Agency of the Year for doubling down on technology, striking expansive new partnerships and adding key executives to provide a true competitive edge. Examples of Code and Theory’s work that drove significant results for its clients include using AI to create synthetic personas to help European gambling platform Tipico break into the U.S. market, and boosting sales 14% on YETI.com after a complete rebuild and redesign of the brand’s e-commerce experience.
• Colle McVoy, a Standout on Ad Age’s 2024 Agency A-List, for achieving an 88% new-business win rate for the year with its branded practices of Exponent PR and 10 Thousand Design. In 2023, Colle McVoy created the first AI-powered recliner with La-Z-Boy that allows users to generate cancellation excuses via SMS text, doubling website traffic for the brand; tapped the former VP of Footwear at Yeezy to design the ultimate lawnmower shoes with Cub Cadet; and got people hooked on chicken feed with Perdue, elevating the brand’s no-antibiotics stance.
• Team Epiphany, a Standout on Ad Age’s 2024 Agency A-List, for evolving from a self-described “nomadic boutique shop” into a major full-service force in the marketing industry, driving culturalist campaigns for clients including American Express, Coca-Cola, HBO’s Max, Lego and Campari USA. Also this year Team Epiphany forged a strategic partnership with Hoorae Media, co-founded by actress Issa Rae—a move that the companies’ principals said would allow them both to scale their businesses.

“Congratulations to the teams at 72andSunny, Code and Theory, Colle McVoy and Team Epiphany for well-deserved recognition after another year of digital and creative innovation,” said Stagwell Chairman and CEO Mark Penn. “Thank you to our clients who continue to trust us to drive results for the most ambitious B2C, B2B, and DTC brands in the world.”

About Stagwell
Stagwell (NASDAQ: STGW) is the challenger network built to transform marketing. We deliver scaled creative performance for the world’s most ambitious brands, connecting culture-moving creativity with leading-edge technology to harmonize the art and science of marketing. Led by entrepreneurs, our 13,000+ specialists in 34+ countries are unified under a single purpose: to drive effectiveness and improve business results for their clients. Join us at www.stagwellglobal.com.

Contact:
Kara Gelber
pr@stagwellglobal.com 

To better serve its roster of blue-chip clients, Code and Theory doubled down on technology, struck expansive new partnerships and added key executives.

Code and Theory’s work drove significant results for its clients. Highlights include:

• Propelling Amazon Ads to be one of the company’s fastest-growing sectors, with a +26% increase in ad revenues in Q3, totaling more than $12 billion. 
• Boosting sales +14% on YETI.com after a complete rebuild and redesign of the e-commerce experience.
• Improving the perception of Con Edison by +20% as “leading New York’s clean energy transition” from the “Where Clean Energy Lives” campaign.
• Pioneering AI personas for Tipico, a European sportsbook, to deliver real-time ‘4th-party’ data that helped Tipico break into the U.S. market.

Code and Theory made significant moves throughout the year, inking a first-of-its-kind partnership with Oracle to deliver AI at scale while also developing deep partnerships with Figma and Yext to offer new solutions. Recognizing that inclusion is the biggest moral and ethical opportunity of our time, it launched Beyond Words, the industry’s first inclusive language guide and certification program.

Code and Theory was named one of Fast Company’s Design Companies of the Year. Its executives have been in demand, speaking at Davos, Web Summit, SXSW and other top events about harnessing AI and other key aspects of emerging technologies.

Code and Theory Co-Founder and Executive Chairman Dan Gardner says, “Technology remains undefeated in transforming the business landscape. We have always solved our clients’ challenges by focusing on technology-first creative solutions. It’s great to win an award that accurately portrays what we do for our clients every day. Business transformation is what drives impactful, long-term growth for our clients.”

Code and Theory CEO Michael Treff says, “We are at an inflection point for clients looking to undergo true business transformation. As an agency that is 50% engineers and 50% creative, we can not only meet our clients’ immediate needs but also put them on a path to harness technology for the long term. We can help them use technology to drive ROI versus being a cost center and drag on growth. Sometimes, it’s introducing new products and services that push toward the edge of what’s possible. Sometimes it’s the acquisition of customers. Sometimes, it’s repositioning the business itself. Often, it’s all of the above. To be able to innovate alongside our partners at the companies we work with each day is an inspiration. And when we see the impact of our work, that’s all the affirmation we need.”

Stagwell Chairman and CEO Mark Penn says, “Code and Theory knows how to impact clients’ businesses. They’ve been at the forefront of technology-led creativity for more than two decades. It’s their comfort zone. Their ability to build capabilities that drive business transformation and premium customer experiences is best-in-class. Whether it’s their partnership with Oracle to enable AI at scale or industry-leading collaboration with Figma, they continue to fearlessly leverage technology as a multiplier while others are scrambling to figure it out.”

About Code and Theory Network
Code and Theory Network is the only network with a balance of 50% creative and 50% engineers at scale. The technology-first group within Stagwell Group is built to partner with businesses to navigate the complexity of changing consumer behaviors, emerging technologies and AI. With a global footprint and the capabilities to work across the entire consumer journey, we crave the hardest problems to solve. The network includes the flagship agency Code and Theory as well as Kettle, Mediacurrent, Rhythm and Truelogic. Code and Theory clients include Amazon Ads, JPMorgan Chase, Microsoft, MSNBC, NFL, Pfizer and Zappos. For more, visit codeandtheory.com.

CONTACT: 
Kenneth Hein
press@codeandtheory.com