A-List 2022 Standout Agencies: Martin

"Scoop, there it is" on the A-List again: The Martin Agency makes our standout list for 2021 by growing its client base, its employee count and its revenue. The Richmond, Virginia, shop snagged cultural moments agency of record status for Snapchat and Sabra and became creative and strategy agency of record for Hasbro's Nerf, Clue and Monopoly brands. Revenue increased 16.3% in 2021 and the agency hired 53 new creatives. See all of Ad Age's A-List 2022 winners here. The shop's Cultural Impact Lab, which brings culture into creative opportunities at Martin, jumped from two team members in 2018 to 36 and saw a 38% increase in organic revenue growth year-over-year. It was an important part of the 30-plus campaigns the agency did in 2021, including those for Axe, Old Navy, Hanes, UPS and the since-departed Coinbase. Last year also brought an expansion to Martin's in-house content and production hub, SuperJoy. The hub launched in 2019 and has expanded into a 20,000-square-foot facility complete with 14 editing bays, a production studio and an audio suite that’s available 24/7. This allowed for SuperJoy to widen its offerings, creating content for Geico, DoorDash, Axe and more. Creatively, Martin built on its popular Geico’s “Scoop! There It Is” commercial featuring rap duo Tag Team by creating an actual ice cream flavor available only if consumers uploaded a TikTok of them doing the dance. The overall effort for "Scoop" garnered more than 15 million views on YouTube and lifted Geico’s favorability 12%. Its "Bodeqality" campaign for Old Navy's size-inclusive fashions generated more than 2 billion impressions over 200 outlets and scored the highest social engagement in the chain's history. Martin also revitalized Axe after nearly nine years of flatline sales with “The New Axe Effect” campaign, meant to cater to gender-fluid and sex-positive Gen Z’s. That push brought Axe its largest social media following since October 2016. See all of Ad Age's A-List 2022 winners here.

Martin's in-house cultural lab and content hub expanded its offerings for multiple clients

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