I just ran my eyes down the list of Inc. 500’s fastest growing companies in Marketing & Advertising, and oddly enough I don’t recognize many of the firms. Ian Schafer of Deep Focus thinks it’s because they paid to be there. I don’t know if that’s the reason, but I do know this is a giant industry made up of thousands of firms I’ve never heard about before.
Thankfully, Inc. provides some spotlight features. In our category, Inc. chose to look at MOST Agency. Revenue at the Aliso Viejo agency jumped from $10 million in 2008 to $40 million in 2009. That sent the company soaring up the Inc. 500, from No. 403 in 2009 to No. 107 in 2010 — the largest jump on this year’s list.
From a look at the agency site, it appears that MOST does a lot of real estate advertising, none of it Lion- or One Show-winning, but all of it well-paying.
Agency head, John Most also addresses Dan Goldgeier’s question about one agency’s ability to do it all.
We have a philosophy we call “wise-sized.” Rather than try to be a one-stop shop, we stay small and form strategic alliances with companies that do things like public relations, digital production, or ethnic marketing. We know we could never hire enough people to be the best at all these things, so we keep our costs down and bring in fresh ideas from the outside.
