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AMA Baltimore congratulates our sponsors and collegiate agencies named in Inc.’s list of fastest growing private companies in America

It’s a huge accomplishment when any privately own business gains success and recognition, but in a year where every business is struggling in a tough economy, it’s even more rewarding to grow and experience success in an uphill battle.  With many companies cutting marketing resources and budgets, agencies must dig deep to maintain clients and continue to grow.  Several local agencies have managed to fight the uphill battle that 2022 has brought so many businesses.

AMA Baltimore is pleased to congratulate our sponsors Response Labs, Yes &, and our collegiate agencies GAVIN, Planit, Mindgrub, Obo, and WebMechanix – all of whom have all been named among the top 5,000 fastest growing private companies according to Inc Magazine.  The ranking is based on percentage revenue growth from 2018 to 2021.

With such accelerated growth in a tumultuous economy, we asked the question: “How did you do it?”

Dan Dawes, Co-Founder & CEO of Response Labs attributes his company’s growth and success to responding to customer needs.  The company was receiving many customer inquiries about digital media strategy and buying, along with creative development of digital assets.  They responded by introducing two new key offerings, Media and Creative.  This enabled them to address shortages in their customers’ own internal resources.  “Internal bandwidth and lack of hands-on experience along with other factors left clients wanting to step their game up in those areas, so we responded by bringing on talented leaders to build those divisions within Response Labs. The results have been fantastic and have only fueled additional growth,” he said.

For GAVIN, continued growth involved strategic assessment of market conditions, combined with an agency re-organization for agility, and tying its core competencies to clients’ needs.  Mandy Arnold, CEO of GAVIN, explained, “As the endemic’s market conditions shifted, we continued to evaluate growth markets to best align our growth strategy for our client base in those industries by going deeper in our client’s industries. This became especially essential to our growth in healthcare and finance industry clients. We work with clients coast to coast, with very specific specializations that have positioned us as preferred agency in key networks.”

In both cases, a focus on client needs combined with strategic planning, and personal development of the employees was key to growth.  Mandy said her company is focused on transparency and communication with the team so that they are aware of how their efforts contribute to success.  “As part of our reorganization over the past two years, we refocused on team success and development, including curating growth paths based on roles to ensure every teammate is clear on their personal path with GAVIN,” she said. Dan added, “What’s exciting is that Team RL is having fun doing very complex work. Which makes sense considering we’re a data-driven company.”

For both companies, the recognition is a sign of their commitment to their clients, their employees and to the industry.  Dan attributes the success to his employees who worked for three years just to qualify for the list.  He said, “We’re fortunate to work in the data-driven digital marketing industry, where brands continue to increase investment to move to more customer centric communications strategies. Because we work in a space that’s in such demand, we’re able to attract very skilled team members interested in producing impactful work, at scale. That continued cycle of growth allowing for attracting the best talent allows us to deliver cutting edge data-driven results for our clients.”

Many points to the strong international growth her company have experienced and their efforts to align their company strategy accordingly.  She also said the notoriety will help attract new talent.  “We want talent to see where we’re going and thus where they can go with us. For our clients, they know we are focused on them, and our growth is a spotlight of how our clients stay with us for the long-term. Nothing says, ‘Work with Gavin’ more than our long-term clients and their success.”

AMA partner agencies with rankings:

Response Labs – 4,590 with 95% growth

Gavin – 4,779 with 88% growth

Yes & – 4,261 with 108% growth

Planit – 4,768 with 88% growth

Obo – 2,492 with 232% growth

Mindgrub – 3,465 with 150% growth

WebMechanix – 4,408 with 101% growth

The complete list of awardees can be found here: The Most Successful Companies in America–and What They Reveal About the Future (inc.com)