At a time when diversity, equity and inclusion programs are being eliminated, Oberland has put those values front and center, highlighting how diversity and purpose are good for business.

“It’s easy to run and hide,” said Drew Train, co-founder and CEO at Oberland. “But if your values are your values, they should not change when the government changes. The brands that are standing up are winning.”

Oberland’s clients are believers. Last year the agency saw new business from brands in finance, health care, beauty, retail and nonprofits, leading to 47% growth in revenue compared to 2023. Oberland’s internal agency also reflects its push for diversity, with 30% of employees identifying as people of color, 63% female and 7% trans or non-binary. For the second consecutive year, Oberland is Ad Age’s Purpose-Led Agency of the Year.

Oberland became the agency of record for craft store Michaels and started new relationships with EQT AB, the world’s third-largest private equity firm, and Organon, a women-focused health care company. New business wins include humanitarian nonprofit Spirit of America, White Plains Hospital and PepsiCo.

Oberland helped e.l.f Beauty talk about board diversity with help from tennis legend Billie Jean King. In the “Serving Facts” campaign, King hit unsuspecting office workers with tennis balls that had board statistics written on them—for example, women make up only 27% of U.S. corporate boards, despite being 47% of the workforce. The idea was to reinforce studies that show brands with diverse boards are more successful.

E.l.f. also partnered with the National Association of Corporate Directors to sponsor a cohort of 20 candidates for a board accelerator program.

The campaign was part of a larger “Change the Board Game” initiative for e.l.f., which also included a head-turning campaign born out of a request to make a B2B post celebrating e.l.f. Beauty’s board diversity—78% women and 44% diverse. 

To make the post more relatable, Oberland and e.l.f worked with the University of Richmond to analyze the 4,100 board members listed on the NASDAQ and NYSE. They found that there are more men named “Dick” (Richard, Rich, or Dick) than entire groups of under-represented people, leading to the “So Many Dicks” campaign. The creative ran in digital and out-of-home ads around Wall Street, with facts including “For every 2 men named ‘Dick’ on publicly-traded boards, there are only 3 Black women by any name.”

Also for e.l.f, Oberland built on the success of its short documentary with American Paralympic swimmer Anastasia Pagonis with two more “Show Your(s)e.l.f.” episodes—one with actor, model, artist and LGBTQ activist Chella Man and another with artist, model and amputee Viktoria Modesta.

“Our tagline is, ‘Make good money,’” said Kate Charles, managing partner and chief strategy officer at Oberland. “We make ads that help a particular purpose, but are also building a business out of that so we have the credibility to support our clients.”