Haymaker’s recruiting pitch is elegant in its simplicity—“If you come to Haymaker, we help you make stuff.”

The mantra is at the heart of the Los Angeles-based agency’s business philosophy, which is that if you give employees the freedom to create what they are passionate about, it will lead to client wins. And the five-year-old agency has notched plenty of victories of late. Revenue surged 49% in 2021, while Haymaker hired 16 people, doubling its head count, which now includes 40% representation from people of color.

Haymaker helped Mercury Insurance stand out in the hyper-competitive category with a campaign that played on the stat that “9 out of 10 people love Mercury Insurance so much they renew each year.” Ads singled out the one person who doesn’t, with slapstick profiles—including one, “Danny Didn't Think This Through,” showing him mistaking modern art for a do-it-yourself art project (he takes a marker to an art museum exhibit). The effort led to a 19% jump in people getting quotes from the insurer, the agency reports.

Haymaker broke through on advertising’s biggest stage with a Super Bowl ad for Greenlight, a banking app and debit card for kids, with a spot starring Ty Burrell of “Modern Family” that shows him mocking ill-advised purchases.

For sparkling water brand Topo Chico, Haymaker spotlighted chefs at seven under-the-radar restaurants by commissioning the artist known as Saddo to make portraits of them. They were put on limited-edition Topo Chico bottles and other merchandise. The campaign was as much about lifting Topo sellers as the brand itself. “Our goal was to go beyond advertising and use our scale, cultural cachet and messaging to support our friends who needed it,” the agency stated, referring to the restaurants.