“We help good people and brands to make the next great leap.”

That’s the motto of Milwaukee-based Hanson Dodge, which took its own great leap last year. The shop’s revenue shot up 42% in 2021 to $11.5 million and is anticipated to triple again this year. It brought on an average of one new brand assignment a month and counts among its clients Creminelli charcuterie, Unilever Blueair and Keen footwear. Last year the agency quadrupled its business for Keen, adding assignments for the marketer’s Outside and Kids division.

The agency says that 20% of its employees identify as multicultural. It offers “Unplugged Days” to bolster mental health and a sabbatical after seven years. The shop also allows remote work—its head of media lives in Minnesota and head of technology in Colorado.

The burst of new business from Keen came after Hanson Dodge transitioned the work boots manufacturer from bricks-and-mortar, building an e-commerce strategy for the company during the pandemic that boosted sales 84%. Last year, the agency fine-tuned that strategy with more digital video and audio, podcasts and social media that led to the company outperforming its sales goal by 28%.

Hanson Dodge also drew millennial foodies to artisan charcuterie brand Creminelli with a campaign themed “People Like You” that showed its target consumers how well it knew them. With lines like “You ask your waiter more questions than you ask your date” to “You pass three Mexican restaurants on your way to a Mexican restaurant,” the agency helped the brand to a 32% increase in revenue. 

And for the Utah Office of Tourism, the agency updated and freshened its VisitUtah.com site with Google Maps, real-time weather and snow conditions and locally staffed live chat. The result was 4.6 million unique visitors, up 23%, and more than 10 million page views, up 8%. Website visitors booked an estimated $79.3 million in local hotels.