A lot of agencies work their butts off to get on the A-List, but none quite so literally as Fig.

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One of the agency’s signature pieces of work during 2021 was Seat Geek’s daring derrieres, which put the underdog ticketing site on the map. Fig’s “Change is hard, but it’s worth it,” platform for Zillow bravely refocused the home-buying experience from transactional to emotional with a gorgeous campaign that soothed children—and their parents—over the strain of moving. Its humorous approach for Waze in Houston informed and entertained drivers snarled in traffic with tips, rhymes and even holiday-specific outdoor boards (“Waze knows how to keep road trips with relatives relatively short”). And a simple insight from Fig transformed the Museum of Modern Art’s “Permanent Collection” to the “Dynamic Collection.”

Though it’s been around nine years, Fig truly broke out in 2021, packing on seven new clients and 50 staffers, bringing its total to more than 110. Revenue climbed to $28 million last year. The shop says it turned away 72% of pitches that came its way and won 85% of the ones it chose to go after. It lost no clients. And though it didn’t ultimately win, dark horse Fig was a frontrunner earlier this year in the hotly contested review for KFC’s U.S. creative account that went to MullenLowe. 

Even in losing, the agency was gracious. “I am sending congrats and a huge well done to MullenLowe U.S. on a hard-fought win,” wrote Fig partner and CEO Judith Carr-Rodriguez on LinkedIn. “We gave it 1,000% and I am super proud of our amazing Fig team. We remain huge fans of everyone at KFC U.S. and we will be cheering you all on from NYC.”

Niche to mainstream

In an interview, Carr-Rodriguez said the shop “got the sense we were moving from being seen as niche to mainstream by the industry” in 2019, thanks to a banner new business year including Benjamin Moore and Zillow. Then, only a few months after it signed a 15-year office lease, came the pandemic. Fig committed to zero layoffs and got to work proposing proactive ideas for existing clients, which resulted in more business—its roster is now “massively skewed” toward agency of record accounts, said Carr-Rodriguez.

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Rather than retrench, the shop built its team, bringing on nine executive-level hires last year, including Asan Aslam, executive creative director; Samantha Deevy, partner communications strategy; and Benton Roman, executive producer. The hybrid working environment adopted by the industry also freed New York-based Fig to go after talent in wider geographies.

Mark Figliulo, founder and chief creative chair of the agency, credits the shop’s growth to the fact that it is willing to invest in both talent and tools. Foremost among those tools is Story Data, Fig’s proprietary storehouse of data assets that the agency uses to help determine the right approach for the client’s “story.” Among other things, it allows a marketer to differentiate itself in a category by analyzing visuals, language and other factors to learn how rivals are approaching messaging. 

Carr-Rodriguez said Story Data brings rigor to the sometimes touchy-feely world of creativity by offering hard data for chief marketing officers at publicly held companies to “justify their decisions to the board and give them confidence to do better creative work.” 

“Empirical data can help a client choose a [creative approach] that might feel risky,” said Carr-Rodriquez, “but doing the same thing as everyone else is the riskiest thing a brand can do.”

Enter Zillow, which took a sharp turn from others in its category under Fig, positioning moving as a sometimes scary transition to a sunny new chapter of life. “We are not Nike, we are a big brand with a moderate budget and we wanted an agency that would come up with the creative big idea and handle production and think about cross-channel and [for whom] we were big enough to have the right people in the room,” said Aimee Johnson, chief marketing officer at Zillow. She said that while the company had plenty of access to Figuilio and other top talent, she was impressed that the shop’s bench was deep enough that “when he left the room, the right people were there.” She added: “Fig is helping me solve business problems. There is no ego there. Their problem-solving connected to their vision is something quite unique.” 

Fig’s vision for Zillow increased the site’s share of traffic among real estate sites by 62% over the prior year and “lifted first choice preference” by 25%, the agency said. Similarly, its “Waze knows” campaign resulted in a 14% rise in search volume and favorability for the brand since September 2021. And Seat Geek’s unaided brand awareness shot from zero to 39% and the brand’s share of search more than tripled since the campaign broke. 

“When SeatGeek called they had the original insight that the pandemic leveled the playing field [against Ticketmaster, which had the vast majority of the market] because nobody is now thinking about tickets. [SeatGeek said] ‘If we come in with a big media buy, we can build an unfair share,’” said Figliulo. “We only showed one idea. They loved the boldness of it.” 

The ads, as As Ad Age’s Creativity put it, “star a series of talking booties that writhe and bulge as they rave about attending sporting events they attended or look forward to.” 

Long-term goals

What’s next for Fig? It’s been approached by big holding companies, but Figliulo said he isn’t interested. “Sometimes you need an infusion of cash to go global, but we don’t have that barrier right now.” Adds Carr-Rodriquez: “It’s nice to have been approached; it shows you are doing all the right things.”

What the shop would like to do next is get another crack at a client on the scale of KFC. “I would do [that pitch all over again],” said Figliulo. “It was a great challenge. We got better.” Carr-Rodriguez agrees. “It was a great experience. You demonstrate to yourself that you can, let alone demonstrate that to the client. We love what we do. And we are so proud of it.”

Clients, and search consultants, are taking note. “Fig is an agency that is coming of age,” said Catherine Bension, CEO of Select Resources International, which handled the KFC pitch. “The shop is ascendant. Its team delivers a strong balance of strategic thinking and creativity focused on solving significant client business and brand challenges. Their work has been well received by our clients in recent pitches. We fully expect them to grow their business over the coming year.” 

See all of Ad Age's 2022 A-List winners here.

Figliulo has an even higher-level goal. “I think there is a vacuum in the industry right now,” he said, given that Droga5 has been bought by Accenture Interactive. “Droga led what creative agencies can do and I’d like to move into that position. It is a lofty goal, but I think we are capable of it. We are the right size and scale to do it and we have the ambition to do it.”

Figliulo adds: “And if we do, we will be the agency of the decade in about nine years.”

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CLARIFICATION: After publication, Zillow disputed the inclusion of figures provided by Fig related to Zillow's increased share of traffic among real estate sites and first choice preference, stating that they were inaccurate or could not be verified by Zillow and were not approved by Zillow for publication. Zillow did not provide its own figures.