Acadia

?? Congrats to this year's Fastest Growing Agencies ?? 1. Creative Currency 2. Salient 3. Saylor 4. LeadOrigin 5. Six Degrees Creative 6. Acadia 7. Idlewild Experiential 8. Majority 9. PixlGroup 10. SUPERHEROES The growth demonstrated by all of the winners is impressive: They’re defeating the odds to deliver rocket-like growth in a crowded and strained market. Each of these agencies has reached new heights by pushing into emerging areas of marketing, disrupting staid categories, and, most importantly, delivering breakthrough work that moves the needle for their clients. Check out the rest of the Fastest Growing Agency list here: https://adweek.it/40HO2kw

Acadia was named today by ADWEEK as the 6th Fastest Growing Agency. It’s an interesting thing to be named fastest growing as we just shared with our agency at our annual meeting the importance of “compounding small wins.” What has enabled our speed, is actually our focus on winning each day with great long-term habits. ?? We talk about compounding, learning, and trying something new every day/week. We talked about compounding careers and continuing to stretch and never just mail it in. We talked about compounding as it relates to our culture and doing the right things by each other, our core values, and fairness. In fact, the ONLY thing I don't recall talking about during our off-site was SPEED. We let others focus on being “first to market” while we focus on being “best to market.” We let others “hire those ready on Day 1” while we look to hire folks who will be “Great on Day 90.” I've been fortunate in my career to be a part of a couple businesses that have been able to quickly grow while staying true to their core values. Acadia was my first leap into the agency world and I could not be more thankful that I did. This is one of many 'wins' Acadia has been able to celebrate recently and there are even more to share very soon. I could not be more proud of everyone at Acadia, our clients, our families, and supporters. Showing up in Adweek’s Fastest Growing Agencies is a huge deal. We feel very fortunate today. Every single client, every employee, every supporter who has taken time to care about Acadia and invest in our community, this one's for you. ?? The growth that makes Acadia most proud is not our own, but rather when we help our clients and the brands they entrust to us grow. You can read more about our ranking and all the other agencies by following the link in the comments.

?? Congrats to this year's Fastest Growing Agencies ?? 1. Creative Currency 2. Salient 3. Saylor 4. LeadOrigin 5. Six Degrees Creative 6. Acadia 7. Idlewild Experiential 8. Majority 9. PixlGroup 10. SUPERHEROES The growth demonstrated by all of the winners is impressive: They’re defeating the odds to deliver rocket-like growth in a crowded and strained market. Each of these agencies has reached new heights by pushing into emerging areas of marketing, disrupting staid categories, and, most importantly, delivering breakthrough work that moves the needle for their clients. Check out the rest of the Fastest Growing Agency list here: https://adweek.it/40HO2kw

So...we took out an ad-buy on Ad Age today to raise awareness on the dangers of Principal Based Media Buying, and made a simple landing site to put all the facts in one place. Fellow marketers, we need to stand up and say NO to principal media buying. At the very least, we need to stand up for more awareness, education, and transparency.? The practice of buying and reselling ad inventory is compromising industry trust. It introduces a conflict of interest that only deepens advertising’s credibility problem, built by itself over the years (trading desks, hidden rebates, viewability, etc...). We can change things if we take committed, collective action. On the website…. Say No to Principal Media Buying (link in comments)…you can read the ANA report and various takes from esteemed journalists covering our industry. You’ll also leave with a checklist of hard-hitting questions for your brand team and ultimately your agency.? If you are reading this and have additional sources to add to the site, or want to help in some other way, DM me.? If you want to help raise awareness of the site, and this attempt at education, then please comment and tag in those you think it will benefit to help it spread.? With your help, more brands will understand and be able to ask braver questions.?Everyone must understand the collective risks and issues and not just turn a blind eye. Appreciate your advocacy on client, agency, and industry sides: Kamran Asghar, Bill Duggan, Jason Hartley, Mike Feldman, Vic Drabicky, Rich Guest, Marina MacDonald, Yogi Jashnani, Ross Martin, Steve Boehler, Greg Wright, Gaurav Sharma, Association of National Advertisers and many others trying hard to share another, better version of what the industry can be and how brands can be served more fairly.

The role of the CFO has evolved in guiding companies through uncharted territories of risk, digital transformation, and strategic investment. But with this expanded power comes a Paradox's box of challenges - navigating through geo-political challenges, the ever-shifting regulatory landscape, and the unpredictable Fed. The question on everyone's mind: what lies ahead? On November 7th, Jenna Banks will moderate a discussion among Atlanta area CFOs such as Dr. Bernd Deffland (DBA, CPA, LL.M.); CFO Dieffenbacher, Rishi Ramano; CFO Acadia, Andre Hopewell; CFO Georgia Cyber Academy, Michael Love; CFO Intuit Mailchimp, and Pankaj Nick Goel; CFO Innova Solutions as they reflect on their experience, predict the challenges CFOs and finance leaders will face in the coming years, and collaborate on strategies that bring strategic growth through the Office of the CFO. Join us in conversation! - https://lnkd.in/gnKAD475 #CFO #Atlanta #Finance #FinanceLeadership #CorporateFinance #FinancialStrategy #RiskManagement #FinancialPlanning #FinancialReporting #FinanceTransformation #FinTech #Accounting #Economy #Leadership #Budgeting #FuturistCFO #CFOMeet

Amazon’s 2024 fee updates were like no other with their complexity, extended rollout (from January through July) and the anticipated impact on sellers’ margins.? Now that the dust has settled on the total rollout of these fees, Acadia Retail Operations brains Armin A. and Jordan Ripley summarize: ?? fee changes actually went into effect this year ?? the impact to brands in the months that followed ?? recommendations to help offset any of these changes in cost structure. Read their full summary in the article linked in comments.

It was great getting to sit down with Jeffrey Cohen at unBoxed. Be sure to listen to the entire episode here: https://lnkd.in/enpnvPcZ

Some learnings from being a Creative Traffic Manager on an agency production team: It can be easy to overload creative teams with projects, especially when tasks are phased and vary greatly. Even if your projects aren’t billed by the hour, building a bandwidth tracking system is key to making accurate and financially sound resourcing decisions. ?? At Acadia, we use Asana to organize and track every aspect of our creative projects. With around 6-8 shoots a month, our team needs a system that helps us plan strategically. Creative minds thrive in structured environments that let them focus on the work, not the workflow. With Asana, we’re able to: ? Map out all phases—concepting, pre-production, production, and post-production ? Assign projected hours per task to each team member ? Plan ahead, allocate resources wisely, and manage overlaps effectively For a small and nimble creative team, having clarity over bandwidth means staying agile and avoiding burnout while still hitting every mark on set. How are you using project management software to streamline your team’s workload? #ProjectManagement #CreativeProduction #Asana #TeamEfficiency #CreativeTeams #BandwidthTracking #ResourcePlanning #Leadership #Marketing #TeamSuccess

Brands and clients I beg you, stop allowing agencies to do principal-based media buying. I am well past trying to hope the Holding Companies stop. They have zero chance to win deals or make earnings if they stop, so that aint happening. Its kind of like steriods in the 90's. Everyone was doing it, so Bonds did it. Now, none of them can stop. So yeah...... So, let me try something different. Fortune 500 brands, this letter is to you. And please note, this is unbiased as I DONT WANT YOUR BUSINESS. My shop works with mid-market brands. So, with that caveat out of the way...allow me to rip. Here is why IPG's clients should be horrified by this headline: a) How would a client know if they are getting recommended media that is best for them versus it just being a good deal for that HoldCo? b) How would that client know that their 27 year old media manager is not getting pressure from the CEO to "sell in" media from NBC even though there could be a better option if they went with Hulu or YouTube? (oh yes, this happens all over the industry....every...single...day...somewhere) c) How does it make any sense that procurement teams spend a full year negotiating with agencies on rate cards and percentages, and then allow what can end up to be MILLIONS of dollars in "additional and invisible" fees to come in the form of arbitrage? d) How is it that media buyers at IPG will have proper incentive to hunt for that next "break-out" SMALL publisher that might make a client really happy, when that agency wont make any extra gravy off that deal? e) How is it that despite all the tech, and all the transparent tools that we have, we are opting to allow deals over wine in dark rooms to re-enter the media eco-system? f) How can we hope for the term "Agency" to ever inch above insurance salesman if we keep doing this crapola? To my friends at Fortune 500 clients, please O please....ask more questions. It is ridiculous for you to have to pay a fee PLUS then allow HoldCo's to get another invisible fee just because nobody understands how any of this works. Oh, and also, for most of you, your rates are about as good (maybe better in a few cases?), so you can just call up a few Publishers to back-solve for how much money they are making off YOUR shareholders cash-flow. Look, there are exceptions. Some of this stuff is performance based (ie - they lay out some money, and only get paid if they hit a CPA of $X). I am good with that. I get that. Those who risk, are allowed to gain, when the deal is clear, and there is a goal. But, the overall explosion of Principal-Based Media Buying is a net terrible thing for our industry, our clients, and progress. This ad is approved by me.

Ever had a customer wander into your store because they saw a 'great deal' online… only to discover your hours or location info were totally wrong? That’s a fast track to bad reviews and missed sales. Enter the Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business), the underappreciated superhero of local SEO. We’re deep into Q4, the most critical time of year for retailers—and your digital storefront needs to be flawless. With holiday shoppers searching “near me” while grabbing coffee or hunting down last-minute gifts, your GBP is the first impression you can’t afford to mess up. Get it wrong, and they’re off to your competitor faster than you can say “Black Friday deal.” I break down the must-dos to make your GBP work for you, not against you. It’s your storefront on Google Search and Maps—so treat it like one. Link in the comments.