Ad Age’s 2018 A-List: “Anomaly”

Have you ever heard about Ad Age? Ad age’s annual list is a way for some companies to be honored for their creativity and their smart business strategy in spite of the challenging environment, by the editorial teams of Ad Age. Through our course ‘Introduction to Advertising and Public Relations’ we were asked to select an agency from the 2018 ad age’s list in order to gain knowledge both on their business and creative model.

An advertising agency of the list that drew our attention is the one called ‘Anomaly’. ‘Anomaly’ was founded in 2004 in New York city and its companies take place in Los Angeles, New York, Toronto, London, Amsterdam, Berlin and Shanghai. It was established by Carl Johnson, Jason Deland, Johnny Vulkan, Mike Byrne, Richard Mulder and Justin Barocas. Throughout these years until today, Anomaly’s team has cooperated with the most known companies all over the world such as Nike, MINI, Coca- Cola, Converse and Google.

‘Anomaly’ was created with the aim of being a change agent which would leave behind the old-fashioned way of thinking and move forward to more fashionable agency models. Their goal is to make brands follow the brand new technology, media and marketing landscape with the purpose of people embracing these companies much more than before.

The idea of the name ‘Anomaly’ came up with the intention of walking away from the norm or the expectations. The 600 employees across offices are distinguished by their talent, their smartness, their innovative ideas and their effective answers to the client questions around the world. Some of their work includes either operating on brand new models or focusing on finding business solutions for the companies. Moreover, ‘Anomaly’ not only does occupy with public relations and andertising services, but also with product development. “We continue to find ourselves in demand at key inflection points,” says Wilsher, an employee of Anomaly. “We’re at our best when we are helping clients navigate particular moments of change.”

When it comes to Anomaly’s awards, an article is not enough to cover all this recognition. ‘Anomaly’ was named “Advertising Age’s 2017 Agency of the year” and was also distinguished as a “Creativity Innovator”. Furthermore, ‘Anomaly’ was 24th in a Fast Company article titled ‘The World’s Most Innovative Companies’. However, we are not done yet. It was also mentioned in Ad Age Magazine 4th in 2016 ‘Agency A-list’ report and 7th in 2015 ‘Agency A-List’ report. To continue with, ‘Anomaly’ won ‘Brand of the year’ and the ‘Designer Toy Awards’ for the agency’s Mighty Jaxx Venture. Last but not least, Anomaly has won Gold Media Effies for Converse and ‘Keep a Child Alive’ Foundation.

Over the last 13 years, ‘Anomaly’ keeps up with the idea that the more its employees integrate new elements into the agency the more it will be kept alive from the brands. Co-founder and partner Jason DeLand says, “It’s difficult to look at a business like Anomaly in a year-to-year, 12-consecutive-month window. We’re trying to stay four steps ahead of everyone else.”

Rodriguez puts it more bluntly: “Every agency says the same shit. We actually mean it.”

Betty Tsakarestou Maria Spanou Niki Despollari Νεφέλη Παπαγιαννοπούλου