Nice&frank tops $4.5 million in revenue in its first year

The nice&frank ad agency was simply called “Frank” when it opened in October 2022—until it received multiple cease-and-desist letters over its name. “We got sued by a bunch of Franks, and so that was early on in our whole thing, and it was a lot of fun,” said Laura Petruccelli, co-founder and chief creative officer. So the shop added the word “nice” to its name and “we do feel like that reflects better who we are,” she said. See all of Ad Age’s 2024 Agency A-List winners here Nice&frank, with outposts in New York and Los Angeles, likes to have honesty sessions with brands, what it calls “frankshops” instead of “workshops.” While promoting open dialog, there is a need to keep manners in check, which is where the “nice” comes in, said Graham North, head of strategy and a co-founder along with Petrucelli and the agency's president, Tamera Geddes. “There’s a difference between shoot-from-the-hip frankness and creating the space for truth to bubble up,” North said. The strategy appears to be working. The agency has hosted sessions with brands that have almost been cathartic for the clients and led to creative breakthroughs, the co-founders said. “We’ve been really fortunate that frankshops, as a model, has kind of been a Trojan horse to get in the door and to rooms that we probably otherwise wouldn’t be invited to just yet,” Petruccelli said. Nice&frank has eight full-time staff and reached $4.5 million in revenue in its first full year in 2023, according to the agency. The creative shop has taken on film, social, out-of-home and consulting work. It has collaborated with major brands and companies including MLB’s San Francisco Giants, Amazon’s autonomous vehicle Zoox, Blackstone, Frito-Lay, PepsiCo and fitness brand Les Mills. Zoox is a prime example of the agency’s method—nice&frank had to help figure out a message to introduce the robotaxi in 2023 with a sneak peek in Las Vegas at CES in January, with plans to show it off in other cities later in the year. The team was wary of how competitors Waymo and Cruise were introduced to the streets in the past and wanted a different message for Zoox. Rivals “just kind of cannonballed into cities,” said Drew Forrest, nice&frank’s director of connections. “So, in that frankshop what we did was really talk about how Zoox is ultimately not a car and it’s not actually a new way to get around the city. What it does, it opens you up to experience new sorts of freedoms … it actually opens you up to experience transportation in a different way.” Ad Age A-List and Creativity Gala Buy your ticket to the in-person event Click here Safety is a top concern for passengers, North said, but the agency didn’t think “safety” was the right conversation for Zoox. The premise of the campaign was more about the benefits of driverless cars. For one, there is no driver distracted by a cellphone or eavesdropping on passengers, North said. “You have to rebrand it from being a car without a driver into a completely new vehicle,” North said. Nine out of 10 brands the agency brought into its no-bull meetings wound up signing with nice&frank in the past year, Petruccelli said. One of them, Les Mills, tapped the shop to help launch the New Zealand fitness brand in the U.S. “It was kind of like a family therapy session,” Petruccelli said. “It was the whole Mills family.” For the fitness category, it would have been obvious to settle on an idea that focused on raw workout power and intense exercise results, Petruccelli said. But the agency came up with an idea to market the positive mental benefits of workouts with the tagline, “Choose Happy.” Nice&frank worked with “Ted Lasso” star Brett Goldstein for that campaign. “We made those tough decisions together with the [Mills] family in the room,” Petruccelli said, “and what came out of it was one of our proudest pieces of work.” See all of Ad Age’s 2024 Agency A-List winners here

Nice&frank tops $4.5 million in revenue in its first year

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