The Originality Tax: Why Instagram’s New Update Is A Bill For Imitators
The new algorithm is a foreclosure on the imitation-first model.
Tag Indie Agencies
Cornett Sends Families Into Orbit to Save LEGOLAND From a Giant LEGO Asteroid
'LEGOLAND Needs You' turns the new Galacticoaster into a cosmic rescue mission where kids build the ship, ride the ride and save the parks
A 55-Year-Old Fitness Icon Just Hired a Much Younger Agency
Jazzercise names Atlanta indie Super Nice its creative partner to reach the next generation of members
Saylor Builds FLEET, a Creator Studio for Brands Tired of Renting Attention
The LA agency formalizes years of creator work into a studio and brings in Nneka Enurah Lee to run it
The 15% Tax: Why A&G Declared Independence From the Hour
Andrew Graff argues that hourly billing quietly drains agency energy — and that indies, not holding companies, have the leverage to end it
Meet Six+One: The Agency That Grows People, Not Just Brands
13 years, 30 brands, $6.7 billion in acquisitions and a Nordstrom-style pop-up for people the industry overlooks — inside New York's disruption-for-good shop
The 4As CEO Explains How the Organization is Rebuilding Itself in Public
A year into the job, Justin Thomas-Copeland is turning a century-old trade body into a service platform with agentic tools, a GenJam for creatives and a ‘4As in your pocket’
The Most Normal Midwesterners in the Room: Inside Young & Laramore’s 43-year Indie Streak
How an Indianapolis creative shop built a national practice on decades-long relationships, behavioral science and a permanent underdog chip
BSSP Adds a $550M Lottery Win to Its Big Year
The agency beat a field of 20 — several of them holding company networks — to lead the California Lottery, with Canvas Worldwide on media
Standard Practice Rewrites the Hunger PSA
A Boulder indie, a donated Bob Dylan track and a hunger-free American summer
Klick Health Makes Cannes History With a Double Crown
The world's largest independent health agency took both Healthcare Agency and Network of the Year in the same night
Compliance is real. Mediocrity is optional.
Inside Rx&O, the new healthcare vertical betting that pharma's red tape was never the reason the work got boring
Meet Chemistry: 10 Years In, Still Without a Cake
The Atlanta indie's leadership trio on naming the agency for a no-asshole rule, the data science turn, and why "permanent imposter syndrome" is a feature
Flamethrowers, Machetes and the End of “It’s Not My Job”
INNOCEAN USA's Jason Sperling and behavioral coach Jen Ostrich on the limiting beliefs killing agency work — and the visceral, very on-fire way to get them out of the room
The Shopify Cart Capped at 1.0. Nobody Noticed.
Left Off Madison's Rob Douglas and Boris Litvinov bought their client's product and found out why the average basket had been sitting at one item for months.
Duncan Channon’s specialty: brands and causes everyone’s mad at
For over 30 years, the San Francisco indie has turned negative narratives into a niche — and a competitive edge