PMG's technology-led media strategy pays off big

For PMG, 2022 was a breakout year. The Forth Worth, Texas-based independent scooped up 12 new clients, including lead agency responsibilities for Shake Shack's mobile app growth and media agency of record responsibilities for Otter Products, Therabody, Tory Burch and Vineyard Vines. See all of Ad Age's 2023 Agency A-List winners here Lilly Pulitzer brought its business back with an expanded scope four months after it departed PMG early last year. The agency also expanded its partnerships with Gap, Momentive (formerly SurveyMonkey), Ralph Lauren and Michael Kors. But what really made the industry stand up and take notice was PMG's stunning win of Nike’s North America media business in July, usurping established agencies across the major holding companies. PMG also became Nike's global digital capabilities partner. The account, which covers the Nike and Jordan brands in all major markets, is estimated to be worth $1 billion and was split with Interpublic Group of Cos.' Initiative, which won integrated media for the rest of the world. This all added up to 30% revenue growth compared to 2021, marking PMG's 12th consecutive year of double-digit growth. The once little-noticed shop now manages more than $3 billion in annual media spend and upward of $50 billion in e-commerce revenue globally. The Nike win was an introduction to PMG “on so many levels,” founder and CEO George Popstefanov told Ad Age last summer. “We feel like we've really built a great vision—and it feels validated.” Buy your ticket for the Ad Age A-List & Creativity Awards Gala here. Nike was drawn to the agency for its capabilities, Popstefanov tells Ad Age now, which are based on a technology-first foundation. When Popstefanov started PMG at age 28, he hired technologists first. Nearly 13 years later, a quarter of the agency’s staff are technologists and its software and data engineers are cross-trained in media. PMG regularly builds joint technical plans with media providers and technology platforms for agility in the media space. The agency’s proprietary AI software, called Alli, is used in all aspects of the shop's business, from onboarding employees to buying media to giving brands a holistic view of their data and media investments. Popstefanov said the agency licenses Alli and trains companies, including Nike, on how to use it, a service that now accounts for 20% of PMG’s revenue. PMG’s usual full-funnel approach to marketing has evolved in the last year, focusing more heavily on marrying creative to data, analytics and measurement to keep pace with growth in technology and e-commerce. “Brands realized that having a hero creative ad and having a performance agency here and an analytics agency here, it’s kind of hard to operate in this world where things change every day,” Popstefanov said. “Things need to be integrated, need to be holistic and need to be measured, so that’s where we built PMG.” Kohler saw the potential in PMG as a true business partner that could work in the constantly changing e-commerce landscape, according to Kohler Chief Brand Officer Samie Barr. PMG won the account in December 2021, and was tasked with shifting away from a legacy media strategy to an integrated, full-funnel approach to “amplify” the business, Barr said. “The best magic comes between an agency and a client when you can actually articulate, foster and develop that true business partnership,” Barr said. “We as an organization have appreciated their distinct tech approach to what they bring us, making sure we’re staying on strategy, but also pushing us to achieve in the spaces we want to go.” The approach drove awareness of Kohler’s premium toilets through ads across linear TV, connected TV, online video and social media, as well as moment-based activations during CES and other tentpole design industry events. One daring space PMG led Kohler into was capitalizing on a "Saturday Night Live" sketch touting a fictional Kohler toilet called “ReKhline.” In response, PMG highlighted Kohler’s Numi intelligent toilet and cheekily supported SNL’s claims that Kohler was “#1 in #2.” “We were able to be right in the zeitgeist of media and on the forefront of where consumers interact with us,” Barr said. “They're really helping us understand and activate on our right customers at the right time throughout our entire customer journey.” Challenged to connect Athleta with digitally savvy Generation Alpha, PMG last year launched Simone Biles’ first signature collection of activewear in the metaverse. The kid-safe campaign aimed inspiring messages at girls playing Roblox—one of the fastest-rising platforms among preteens and teens. Top 10 game Livetopia featured an Athleta Girl storefront, where players could interact with an employee avatar and receive a tote bag. In August, Athleta’s Back to School campaign integrated with Livetopia to feature a Biles avatar, a custom obstacle course—or ‘obby’ in Roblox parlance—and a virtual storefront with 15 Athleta Girl outfits for players to collect and wear, along with motivational messages through a virtual billboard takeover. Multiple PMG business units saw significant growth in 2022, particularly influencer marketing, with 93% year-over-year growth, and creative, with 69% year-over-year growth. @imdrebrown Jack just doesn’t get it. He needs to #JustAsk with @surveymonkey. He can even use their already curated templates too. #SurveyMonkeyPartner ♬ original sound - DeAndre Brown PMG also launched SurveyMonkey’s first-ever influencer campaign to help the company regain market leadership position after its rebrand to Momentive in 2021. In addition to working with actor Giancarlo Esposito, PMG worked with top creators across TikTok and YouTube to illustrate the unconventional ways surveys foster connections and empower people. With a new tagline, “Give the people what they want,” the agency enticed business leaders to listen to their customers and employees to make better business decisions. In one TikTok, creator and self-proclaimed “corporate baddie” DeAndre Brown told his boss that Gen Z doesn’t care about free pizza, but when prompted for more advice, Brown said “I don't consult for free" and referred his boss to SurveyMonkey. Another reason Nike was drawn to PMG was its culture, Popstefanov said. “‘Just Do the Right Thing’ is one of their values, and it's one of ours,” he said. “Outside of our capabilities, I think one of the things that really resonated with (Nike) was how we partner with our employees and how we take care of our employees." The shop grew from 470 employees across seven offices in 2021 to more than 600 last year. Amid this rapid growth, PMG was named to Ad Age's Best Places to Work list eight consecutive years for prioritizing employees on a human level, not a business level. “Our strategy first and always centers around our people, because ultimately, we’re in the service industry,” Popstefanov said. “If we don’t take care of our people, they’re not going to take care of our customers.” During the pandemic, PMG began offering an $800 monthly stipend to support working parents, and employees received additional PTO as "relief days" (days off) and "recharge days" (days with no meetings). In 2022, the agency has remained flexible in its return-to-office plans, expanded PTO to more than four weeks, subsidized lifestyle spending accounts and increased free counseling sessions through an Employee Assistance Plan. Making way for increased diversity in the future, PMG partnered with local Tarrant County College in 2022 to train more than 1,000 students in digital and marketing foundations in five years. The agency also partnered with multicultural student organizations through campus recruiting, including 115 Hispanic-serving institutions, 62 HBCUs and 24 women’s college groups. See all the winners of Ad Age's 2023 A-List Awards here.

PMG's technology-led media strategy pays off big

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