Last year was a bounce-back year and then some for Anomaly.

In 2020 the shop lost 20% of its U.S. business due in large part to Carnival Cruises and Booking.com pausing their business because of the pandemic. That caused a $25 million drop in revenue compared to 2019. But last year, with business back from Carnival and large account wins, the agency increased its revenue to $137 million, up $10 million from its 2019 numbers.

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Overall the agency scored 26 new business wins across the U.S. for brands including Jimmy John's, Netflix, Oculus, Abbott, Denny's, Tanqueray, multiple Google initiatives, Amazon Corporate and, most notably, Dunkin’. The shop also became global lead agency on Expedia, for which it did a Super Bowl ad earlier this year. While that is a healthy number of wins, Anomaly prides itself on its selectivity, having rejected more than 50 new business opportunities last year.

“Our growth strategy has really come from organic growth,” said Jiah Choi, CEO of Anomaly Los Angeles. "This means investing in the clients that you have and growing with them together—which is why there's a legacy of long-term relationships with brands like Diageo, Coca-Cola and Google. I am very clear with new business clients: We're also interviewing you while you're getting to know us. We're not a desperate group and our growth doesn't just come from new business. And even in the new business opportunities we decide to go after, if there isn't a genuine opportunity to organically grow with them, it's not worth it.”

One new client Anomaly did go after is Dunkin', one of the biggest pitches of the year, which shifted its account after working with BBDO since 2018. In 2020, Dunkin’s U.S. ad spending totalled about $442 million, according to Ad Age Datacenter estimates. The iconic brand—which ranks as a distant No. 2 coffee chain behind Starbucks—was acquired by Inspire Brands, which wanted to reinvigorate it while preserving its essence, said Franke Rodriguez, CEO of Anomaly New York and Toronto.

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“The brief was really 'How do we take "America runs on Dunkin,’’ and Dunkin’, which is an iconic brand, and breathe new life in it,” Rodriguez said. “How do we contemporize this notion of what ‘America runs on Dunkin' means? We didn't want to walk away from that idea, but it certainly needed a new lens. We needed to reframe it and aim it for America today without losing the earnest equity it's built."

The challenge was not to "lose the notion that it's a brand for these blue-collar and hardworking people, but still bring in some aspiration into that," said Rodriguez. "It's not just for construction workers and the police. It's more than that. There are lots of ways young and progressive modern Americans fit from a values perspective.”

The work inspired by that brief will be coming later this year.

For another client, Denny's, Anomaly strategized a platform to modernize its image and bring consumers back into its restaurants. Denny's, like many chains, was hit hard by the pandemic, especially early on when its U.S. system-wide sales fell 35.2% to $1.74 billion in 2020. In February of this year, Anomaly launched a new brand platform called “Open for Anything" meant to remind customers about the brand, but also let people know that “It’s not your grandma’s Denny's,” Rodriguez said. The agency has also had conversations with the brand about internal communications strategy, including recruitment campaigns.

Freakin’ Jimmys Johns!

Probably the best recent example of Anomaly bringing new energy into a brand is its work for sandwich brand Jimmy John’s. 

Last year the agency launched a Super Bowl ad for the brand starring Brad Garrett as Tony Bolognavich, the Mafia-inspired “King of Cold Cuts” who’s isn’t a fan of the fresh ingredients Jimmy John’s uses in its sandwiches—he even deliberately mispronounces the chain’s name in its own ad. The brand originally wasn’t looking for a Super Bowl spot or even a spokesman, but was looking to disrupt the quick-service restaurant category and differentiate itself from “a sea of sameness” in the sandwich segment, Choi said. In other words, to stand out from much larger competitors such as Subway.

“Creating a character like Tony Bolognavich gives them [Jimmy John’s] a voice," Choi said. “He represents the competitors, because he's supposed to be the King of Sandwiches but his whole crew is eating Jimmy John Sandwiches behind his back. It's a fun way to de-position the competitors while talking about what's better and unique about Jimmy John’s.”

Since the work has launched, the sandwich chain’s sales have hit a record high and the launch of its wraps was one of the most successful in its history. However, the agency doesn’t just focus on creative campaigns for the brand; it also has a hand in more upstream and internal work, including helping the brand communicate to its franchisees, helping conceptualize different sandwich concepts and offerings and testing out ideas in non-traditional ways. In early February, for example, Anomaly helped launch Château Jé Jé, a one-time-only, upscale sandwich pop-up experience in Austin, Texas, to celebrate Valentine's Day.

"The response and results have been incredible," said Darin Dugan, Jimmy John's chief executive officer. "Anomaly has given us an ownable platform—The Sandwich of Sandwiches—with a very memorable character named Tony Bolognavich, that allows us to build brand love while also showcasing quality ingredients and our franchisees’ dedication and commitment to a great guest experience. Our integrated and truly breakthrough efforts have helped drive sales to new levels for the brand both last year and as we enter 2022."

A focus on diversity

Anomaly shined in creating work with diverse messages. On behalf of Dick’s Sporting Goods, Anomaly launched a “There She Is” campaign during the Tokyo Olympics which included a 60-second video that showed various female Olympians training and playing sports juxtaposed to the music and lyrics to "Here She Is, Miss America."

The agency also partnered with Netflix for a campaign during AAPI Month by putting the spotlight on various Asian Netflix talent such as stand-up comics Jo Koy, Jimmy O. Yang and Margaret Cho, along with actors Justin H. Min and Lana Condor.

The agency itself is also diverse: 51% of agency leadership is female and 43% is BIPOC.

Investing in IP

A big part of Anomaly’s identity also includes its intellectual property business. In the past Anomaly has invested in brands like Eos and Dosist, and it continues to invest in new companies. One of its latest investments is in a fertility and pregnancy app called Obie which Anomaly conceived and created alongside BabyMed Founder Dr. Amos Grunebaum. The app, which the agency considers the first reproductive health coach app, is meant to help couples identify barriers to pregnancy and manage their fertility journeys by providing them with the knowledge and tools used by OBGYNs and fertility specialists straight to their phones. 

While the app is still in its early stages, in the first six months of being live as a beta version the app has already had 16,000 women and couples users and an app store conversion rate of 50%. As part of this venture, four members of Anomaly’s staff have become Obie shareholders as part of their compensation for working with the company.

As part of its IP ventures Anomaly also launched Lets Get FR.EE, (F*ck Racism. Elevate Equity), a music festival dedicated to bridging the equity gap in entertainment for minorities. Anomaly partnered 50/50 with Afropunk founders Matthew Morgan and Jocelyn Cooper to create and launch the platform.

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In addition to IP, the agency is no stranger to music collaborations. Last year Anomaly created a music video and campaign for rap duo Run the Jewels as part of an initiative for YouTube Music. As part of the campaign, the agency created a ’90s toy ad for rappers Killer Mike and El-P that amassed more than 6.1 million views and led to the creation of limited-edition Run the Jewels toys. Anomaly was also behind the limited-edition, mini-yacht cereal "bowls" inspired by a collaboration between rapper Lil Yachty and Reese’s Puffs.

Anomaly’s IP business helps bring credibility to ideas the agency may add to a brand, Rodriguez said. 

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“We understand what it takes to create a product, how to market a product, what does it look like when it's sitting on the shelf. So when we go to the clients and say, ‘Hey, we want to change the logo on the Johnnie Walker bottle for Women's History Month,’ we can talk about it in a way that's a bit more credible and authentic and they understand we're coming from a place of brand ownership.”