When Shake Shack was looking to build its brand, long a destination for New Yorkers but less recognizable outside of the Big Apple, it turned to Preacher as its first lead creative agency. The Austin-based shop cut to the heart of the burger chain’s offerings with a campaign called “For What It’s Worth.”

Culled from real social media comments, the push included TV spots, social media, out-of-home and retail marketing demonstrating to potential customers that if real folks love Shake Shack so much, it might just be worth trying.

The campaign—which started in Seattle and is expanding more broadly this year—resulted in a 12-point lift in awareness with the target audience, along with increases in purchase intent and favorability.

Preacher’s achievement for Shake Shack is emblematic of the agency’s year overall, in which it convinced several new clients that its work was also worth it.

In 2022 and the early months of 2023, Preacher won an impressive 80% of its pitches, leading to a diverse roster of new clients including Sport Clips, Foot Locker and Meow Wolf. The shift also reversed a downward trend in 2021 that saw Preacher win only 20% of the business it pitched. The agency ran an audit of that year’s losses to improve its processes.

Now running full steam ahead, Preacher predicts revenue of $14 million this year, a 27% increase over $11 million in 2022.

“Preacher’s ability to put our beliefs into action with a special blend of New York hustle and Southern hospitality is the thing that keeps making believers in Preacher,” the agency wrote in its entry.