Merging two strong independents could have been a whopper of a failure, but for BarkleyOKRP, which combined a year ago this month, it’s been a success.

The 700-person agency projected $162 million in revenue for last year and proved it was a lot more than just the Burger King agency by notching AOR wins with Visit Florida, the National Pork Board, UnitedHealth Medicare Advantage and Elanco.

The shop also bought digital performance marketing agency Adlucent from Advantage Solutions in May of last year and hired its first president of media and analytics, Sean Corcoran, formerly U.S. CEO of Interpublic Group of Cos.’ Mediahub. 

In its entry, BarkleyOKRP called its union a “true integration fueled by a unified leadership team, company cultures with shared values, and a Midwestern approach to creativity that is honest, audacious and surprising.”

That audacity was evident in a campaign for the Kansas City Chiefs that was styled after a Hallmark movie. Called “Falling for Football,” it included actual players, familiar actors from the genre and Easter eggs for fans of romance films. The low-budget push brought in $10 million in earned media value and 12.5 million video views.

Love—or the reality TV approximation of it—also figured into BarkleyOKRP’s campaign for Metro by T-Mobile, a wry parody of shows such as “Love Island” that likened rival carriers to what the agency called “toxic exes … who love-bomb you when you are new and ghost you for the next shiny object.” Called “Nada Yada Yada,” the effort produced a 5% rise in brand recognition and a 20% jump in brand consideration among its targets.

BarkleyOKRP also flexed its creative chops with arresting work for the City of Kansas City and United Way of Greater Kansas City called “Unfinished Legacies,” which used AI and deepfake technology to “resurrect” fentanyl victims who died after taking a pill offered by a friend. The chilling campaign ran on Spotify, social media, out-of-home and even the victims’ Snapchat accounts.