8 surprising specialties at niche agencies

Many agencies aim to handle every need a client might have. However, some have developed an unusual niche or specialty to stand out amid a plethora of small agencies launching and winning significant business. Below are just some of the many surprising specialty agencies that are carving out a place in the market. Agency Review Tracker Stay up to date with the latest account reviews Click here Generational genius Several agencies have launched with a focus on reaching young generations. Adolescent Content, a Black and female-owned agency, focuses on the Gen Z market and influencers through its creator network. Another Gen Z specialist is Dang, founded this year by married couple Karan Dang, Walmart’s former head of brand creative, and Shruti Dang, former senior product designer for software company BlackLine, which pitches its expertise in “next gen” culture. Read more: Marketing to Gen Alpha, Gen Z and millennials Then there are the specialists for older generations. Strategic consultancy Five0 and agency Openly Gray each launched this year to help brands reach consumers aged 50 and older, who Openly Gray Co-Founder and President Lee Brody said can be misunderstood in marketing. “The gray market is strong, vital, and active,” Brody wrote in a statement. “They are UX, AI, and VR fluent.” Recent news: Dove’s new ad celebrates aging Grace Creative, a woman-owned agency founded by Susan Lee Colby, has expertise in reaching women over 50. “Nobody here is named Grace,” reads the agency’s website. “But Grace is what we bring to the office in confidence, cool heads, and an indomitable sense of humor earned over decades in big-agency advertising.” A drone devotee Heads in the Sky Drones started as a shop that creates drone shows for brands. So far the agency has created premium drone shows for a number of Hollywood properties: the 2024 Netflix is a Joke Festival, Amazon MGM Studios’ movie “Challengers,” Sony Pictures’ “Fly Me to the Moon” and the first-ever drone show featured on ABC’s “The Bachelor.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by heads in the sky drones (@headsintheskydrones) The agency also has an offering called the “Drone Zone.” The revolving event content capture service has been used to film celebrities such as Jennifer Lopez and Simu Liu during red carpet appearances. The shop was co-founded by Kevin Prince, who helped build Netflix’s unscripted social media and marketing team. The agency’s other co-founder is Michelle Ritorto, who most recently served as a producer at HSTL Productions. Outdoor enthusiasts Backbone launched in 1997 as a PR agency for outdoor and active lifestyle brands. The Colorado agency now offers paid media, influencer and search marketing for clients including Yeti, Smartwool, Black Diamond, La Sportiva and Dickies, the last of which just named Backbone its agency of record for PR, affiliate marketing and influencer management services. The shop also handles related travel and tourism clients such as Aspen Chamber Resort Association, the Breckenridge Tourism Office and Ski Utah. Its hunting and fishing clients include Gerber, Grundéns, First Lite, Mathews Archery and Maven. Also read: Yeti CMO departs to lead marketing at AG1 A food culture connoisseur Guto Araki and Alex Jacobs started Biite Club during the height of the pandemic in 2021. Playing off sneaker drop culture, the idea was to help emerging chefs and restaurants drop limited one-of-a-kind food items and experiences, such as a 22-course taco Omakase experience. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Biite (@biite.club) That led to Biite, an agency focused on connecting brands to food culture. The shop has already curated events for Nike and NBA 2K, and, most notably, helped create Taco Bell’s inaugural Live Más Live event during Super Bowl weekend this year. The livestreamed event featured Taco Bell fans, content creators and celebrities as the restaurant chain unveiled its slate of products and partnerships for 2024. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Biite (@biite.club) Biite Club is also growing and has over 30,000 subscribers. AI aces While one would be hard-pressed to find an agency not using AI, there are also specialists in helping other agencies master it. Supernatural AI is perhaps the best known, but there’s a bumper crop of other shops specializing in the space. Rehab Agency, an innovation studio that has been around for over 20 years, recently launched RehabAI, an offering that develops AI solutions for brands, agencies and publishers. “RehabAI is particularly focused on creating tools that assist teams at the start of the creative process, before production begins,” said Tim Rodgers, Rehab Agency’s founder and chairman. “These are not generative AI tools, but are instead designed to help brands understand changing consumer insights, provide unique creative inspiration and test ideas with synthetic audiences throughout the ideation process.” Among its innovations are a Stress Tester that allows companies to use synthetic AI personas to test campaign ideas and an RFP Checker that quickly breaks down RFPs. More news: 9 AI tools agencies are embracing right now Fig, meanwhile, built its own platform called StoryData that uses AI and machine learning to identify storytelling opportunities and strategies that the independent shop is now offering to other agencies. Among other things, StoryData allows a marketer or agency to differentiate a brand in a category by analyzing visuals, language and other factors to learn how rivals are approaching messaging. AI marketing blog How brands are using ChatGPT, DALL-E 2 and other tools Read more here The federal case Independent agency Yes& recently launched a government-focused division called Yes& Federal. The move was a way for the agency to centralize its existing work and make it easier for government entities to find and work with the agency, according to a statement from Yes& Founder and CEO Robert W. Sprague. Currently, Yes& Federal is creating and managing national ad campaigns for the U.S. Mint, the Department of Transportation, the State Department, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Smithsonian. A design shop only for beer and booze Stout Collective is a design studio that only works with beer companies and brands. Since its launch in 2015, Stout has worked with over 100 breweries and alcoholic beverage brands, including Elysian Brewing, Goose Island Beer, Solemn Oath Brewing, 3 Sheeps Brewing, Jagermeister and more. Founder and CEO Matt Tanaka said this niche fits its employees’ expertise. “Many of us came up at breweries and distributors, bars, restaurants, print shops and more,” Tanaka said. “When we opened our doors in 2015, there were 4,000 operating breweries in the United States; today there are over 10,000.” The company also hosts an annual beer design conference in Chicago. The prank pro DCX Growth Accelerator has long been known for stunts and parodies on behalf of brands, such as its 2018 Payless “Palessi” prank that tricked fashion influencers into buying inexpensive Payless shoes that had been branded as luxury items. The agency also famously helped trick members of the Napa Valley community into protesting the development of a fake Voodoo Ranger-themed amusement park. DCX is now turning its attention to helping other agencies pull pranks for clients. DCX teamed with Gus Creative for a campaign that spoofed Apple’s annual iPhone events on behalf of its client BackMarket, which sells refurbished tech products. While these may seem like off-the-wall ideas, Doug Cameron, DCX’s chief strategy and creative officer, said they’re based on strategy and defining a brand’s “ideology.” “It’s not a prank for prank sake, but we’re actually just dramatizing the brand’s ideology and taking on a big tension that everyone’s kind of interested in, and that’s what makes it relevant,” said Cameron. Sign up for Ad Age newsletters From influencer marketing to agencies, get the latest news and analysis delivered to your inbox Click here

8 surprising specialties at niche agencies

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