SmartBug Media™ — a leading Intelligent Inbound™ marketing agency that assists businesses in generating leads, increasing awareness, and building brand loyalty through inbound marketing, digital strategy, design, marketing automation, and public relations—today announced that it was named to the inaugural Adweek 100: Fastest Growing Agencies List. This recognition, based on growth and revenue over the past three years, follows on the heels of the company being ranked 11th on the Orange County Business Journal’s list of Fastest-Growing Private Companies last week as well as being named to the Inc. 5000 list for the third year in a row last month.
“Making Adweek’s exclusive list of the world’s most successful advertising and marketing agencies is an incredible accomplishment and a great honor,” says Ryan Malone, founder and CEO of SmartBug Media. “We are thrilled with our continued momentum and now-global recognition throughout the industry as a performance-oriented, successful full-service marketing agency, with proof of satisfied clients and employees to back up our record growth. It’s an exciting time to be a SmartBug!”
To be eligible for the Adweek 100: Fastest Growing Agencies list, agencies provided three years of earned revenue from 2016-2018 and had to have at least $250,000 of revenue in 2016. Participating agencies were required to certify the accuracy of their reported revenue figures, and Adweek performed additional auditing to determine the accuracy of the submissions. The exclusive collection of 100 agencies from around the globe accounted for 21 specific disciplines and categories—ranging from full service to experiential, B2B to eCommerce, direct marketing to influencers, and everywhere in between. Additional information about the list can be found here.
As Adweek’s editorial team explained, “[this] first annual global ranking proves that fresh thinking and fearless risk-taking can really add up.” SmartBug is a prime example of this—it remains one of the few fully remote marketing companies in the world, allowing every employee to work from their home office. This innovative workplace model has enabled the company to recruit people who are passionate about their jobs and committed to the zest of their lives, resulting in a high-retention business. It has also eliminated geographic constraints, allowing SmartBug to hire the best people for the job, regardless of location. The model continues to be wildly successful; SmartBug has earned a record number 292 five-star customer ratings, making it the highest-rated Hubspot partner in the world.
SmartBug has grown from 55 to 75 employees so far this year, quickly scaling to meet the needs of its rapidly growing roster of more than 100 clients and keeping pace with its three-year revenue growth rate of 192 percent. In the past year, SmartBug has also won nine Comparably awards and hundreds of marketing industry awards.