Author: Chris Copacino
The Ad Age Small Agency of the Year Awards are open to all independent agencies nationally with under 250 employees. It is a highly competitive, prestigious recognition in our industry.
Since our agency was founded in 1998, our goal is to build and sustain an agency of enduring excellence in the work we do and how we do it, all in collaboration with our clients. With this in mind, it is gratifying this is the fourth time Copacino Fujikado has received this award over the last 10 years—the most of any current Seattle agency.
The award is great—it's always nice to be recognized—but as an agency we find more pride in what the award represents based on the judging criteria, which directly aligns with what is important to us as an agency.
Creativity is the widget me make. To get there, we find the intersection of business strategy and keen audience insights to unlock powerful creative ideas. Our media department thinks creatively to put topspin on those ideas. It's about the work and we're proud of what we have created in lockstep with our great clients.
I was told once, "clients buy results." We take this notion to heart. We love making compelling, award-winning creative. But we realize great creative isn't truly great unless it ultimately works. Our ability to drive results is our North Star—across agency teams and departments—and in collaboration with our clients. So when we help Gesa Credit Union drive the most auto loans of any financial institution in Washington over the last two months or play a role in Seattle's highest hotel occupancy rate of any US city (our main metric for Visit Seattle) we find satisfaction in having made great work that works.
It's important to us to care about the right things, be a "for-good" agency in action and be a strong community citizen. Agency focuses like our Pride Guide to help brands authentically celebrate Pride Month or our mentorship program dedicated to introducing disadvantaged youth to a career path in advertising speak to this ethos. It's clear it is no longer enough to say you care as an organization, it's about what you meaningfully do in service of those values—both inside and outside your walls. So, we take pride in the culture and agency mindset we have created—although the journey ends never.
These last 2+ years have tried us across business, social and political fronts. Early in the height of the pandemic, when business slowed and the future was unclear, our mindset was to survive and look for opportunities to thrive. We have done just that. Starting in early 2021, business picked up and hasn't stopped. We won new business, our creative product got stronger, our agency pulled closer together (even while working remotely) and as we sit here in July of 2022, we are a prosperous, vibrant agency digging deep and excited about what the future holds.
The agency business is fast-paced and success can be fleeting. We have an agency saying—when good news happens, celebrate immediately. So, we're doing just that, with pride and humility, in what this recognition represents. But we're also keenly aware this business is about what you do next, now what you did last week, last month or last year. So, with that, here's another agency saying: Sempre Avanti! (Always forward)