Adgile Media Group

The love affair with Crown Affair continues! Huge congratulations to Dianna Cohen and the Crown Affair team on their oversubscribed $9M Series B round led by True Beauty Ventures! Since their launch in 2020, Crown Affair has been rewriting the rules of prestige haircare; this $9M milestone is just the latest in a growing list of proof points. The brand is on fire too -- they’re on track to hit $20M in revenues this year, up from $8M just last year (and they’re doing it profitably). I had the pleasure of getting to know Dianna during Adgile Media Group’s fundraising process. As luck would have it, our cap tables ended up looking nearly identical—so naturally, I found myself on the phone with her more times than I’d like to admit. Fast forward a few years, and we had the good fortune of linking back up on a campaign to support Crown Affair’s retail strategy at SEPHORA. If you’ve met Dianna, you know she’s an easy person to root for—patient, brilliant, and all-around an incredible thought partner. Crown Affair leads with a unique blend of innovation and intentionality. Their products don’t scream for attention, but work behind the scenes to give customers that coveted “no-makeup makeup” look for hair. Their hero products — The Dry Shampoo, The Texturizing Air Dry Mousse, and The Leave-In Conditioner — have all become cult classics. Proud friend, and big win for an incredible team. I couldn’t be more excited to see what this next chapter of thoughtful expansion looks like!

Sad -- our 6-month campaign in NYC with Zack's Mighty come to a close. Glad -- the campaign drove a double digit percentage lift in sales at Whole Foods in NYC! Unlike many brands, Zack's Mighty chips begin as *actual* tortillas, which are then rested, cut, and fried. This more traditional process results in chips robust enough to handle hearty dips without breaking. We recreated this image at the Adgile Media Group office because we did not went to get sued for false advertising. I can personally verify that these chips are indeed quite strong. It was not until we were are 4x standard scoop serving that we experience diminishing marginal utility. Impressive. Loved working w/ Zack, Kiera Kehoe & the Zack's Mighty team on this one. Be sure to try the mightiest chip on the market if you see them on shelf!

Fun one w/ the Quan Media Group crew in support of Amazon Fresh's new owned-retail formats! In 2017, Amazon acquired Whole Foods Market for $13.7 billion, marking a significant move into physical retail, nabbing 400 brick & mortar locations in the process. Amazon Fresh -- which began as just a grocery delivery service -- has expanded with its own standalone retail concept, with 52 doors at the time of writing. While both entities operate under Amazon, they position completely differently: - Whole Foods targets customers prioritizing organic and natural products, often at a premium price point. - Amazon Fresh appeals to those seeking a comprehensive selection of groceries, including national brands and private labels, at competitive prices. Pretty cool to see these customer segmentation strategies play out in real time, & in the real world. I think Amazon has thread that needle incredibly well by not forcing Whole Foods (which as such strong brand equity) under the Amazon umbrella & allowing it to operate largely on its own from a customer UX perspective.

Fun one to write-up, as both Open Water (NVC '15) & Adgile Media Group (NVC '19) were launched out of the same University of Chicago start-up scene. Over the years, we've worked with digitally native brands, retail-first/wholesale brands, and a number of owned-retail brands. Open Water has always been an interesting one to me in that they are one of the few that took a different approach by focusing exclusively on dominating the food-service space at first. And while their aluminums can have adorned the UChicago dining halls & classrooms for quite some time now, it has been awesome to see their recent proliferation to the shelves of Sweetgreen, Chipotle, Just Salad, Whole Foods, Ralphs + countless others. The value proposition is simple -- and extraordinarily compelling -- to those focused on ESG commitments: 91% of plastic doesn’t get recycled, and it takes more than 400 years for the material to degrade. Aluminum, on the other hand, is infinitely recyclable and is the most recycled beverage package in the United States. By using aluminum, Open Water decreases plastic pollution of water. And in-line with its mission, the company works with non-profits and donates a portion of its earnings to cleaning up the ocean.  It takes a community to take down “big water” (and its plastic). We're excited to be part of that community, and help Open Water pour into their new partnership the Intuit Dome as the official water of the LA Clippers. Who knew the brightest star in the arena wouldn’t be on the court, but in the hands of the fans? Congrats to Jess Page, Nicole Doucet, Griffin McElwee, and the Open Water team on such a successful brand refresh & partnership launch. Oh yea, by the way -- this water is *not* from Fiji. Here’s to a brand that doesn’t just dress itself up, but is making waves by focusing on freshness and sustainability. There’s no need for glitzy promises of “untouched” and “pure” when you’re offering true transparency. There’s a downtown LA-sized island of plastics floating around the ocean. Let’s not add to it. More Ocean. Less Plastic.

As New Yorkers ran the NYC Marathon the other weekend, Adgile Media Group teamed up with Huel to help fuel the city's runners! To support their partnership Runna, we deployed Huel trucks to their pre-race pop-up & supported the team as they sampled the products and discussed the power of balanced nutrition. It was a great event, and popping up *right* near the finish line of the race was the perfect way to reach their target audience. The timing for this campaign couldn't be better -- building top of the funnel into & through BFCM / New Years is sure to pay dividends as we head into a peak sales-period for the brand. I love the way this campaign's creative turned out as well - the massive product shots & the contextually-aware copyrighting; each truck has a unique quip: “You can’t have a B.E.C. everyday” and “No time for breakfast? No problem.” -- an awesome way to show their understanding of the city they are in and appeal to the lives of those that live in it. It been a treat getting to work with Freya Gordon, Emma Lamont, Sebastian Clark, Neve Casey + the broader Huel team to make sure the Huel brand was in the right place at the right time, and I admire the the strategic nature of a UK-based brand tying themselves to iconic moments in U.S. culture like the NYC Marathon to introduce stateside-folks to the power of their products.

The competition is over - we've crowned our winner. This Summer from here on forth will forever be cemented in history as the “Summer of St. Bart’s!” If you haven’t been able to get your hands on OUAI’s St. Bart's line – which includes a hair and body mist, body cream, and body cleanser – the products are incredible; infused with notes of dragon fruit, orange blossom, tuberose & musk. Once an LTO scent that their community demanded make a comeback, OUAI doubled down and built an entire line around the scent to take folks an instant OUAI-cation. The Adgile Media Group team had the luxury of helping the OUAI team launch their St. Bart’s line by bringing the tropical vibes to audiences on Sephora-optimized routes across NYC, LA, SF, and MIA in what was one of our biggest campaigns to date! The creative takes you a-OUAI to the white sand beaches of St. Bart’s, and featured memorable tongue-in-cheek copy like “SMELL LIKE YOU’RE THAT BEACH” & “VACAY IS ONLY A SPRAY A-OUAI.” The campaign featured a number of guerilla sampling moments with strategic stops in front of Sephora stores (which drew such large crowds that it almost became a liability). If you're familiar with the brand, you’ll also notice this was a fairly bold departure from their typical brand aesthetic. They took a calculated risk, put their chips on the table, went all-in and got rewarded big-time. The incredible product, the memorable copywriting, the insane hype, the flawless execution, & the incredible community response – there’s not much else to say here other than the team nailed it. It has been an incredible experience having a front-row seat to it all, and the results speak for themselves: the hair and body mist has been OUAI’s biggest release at Sephora on record, and the mist has been the brand’s best-selling product since it came out. When you see a brand playing offense & taking long shots downfield – and “the big idea” working – there truly is nothing better. Hats off to Nicole Solórzano, Hayley Allard (Lobel), Juliet Sivori, & the broader OUAI Team, who we’ve had the pleasure of working with *check notes* for the greater part of three years! With each media dollar we’ve spent, we’ve learned something new to help make the next dollar work even harder to drive online & in-store velocities. Shoutout to Rita Tabet, Yordanah de Coninck, Vanessa Alas, & the Pop Up Mob team, who crushed the experiential give-a-OUAIs, & with whom we’ve developed a lovely burgeoning partnership with. Love to Brian Rappaport at Quan Media Group, with whom we’ve always loved collaborating with on campaigns over the years. And of course, thank you to Katie H. at Morning Brew who covered the story. And I mean... c'mon, just look at these photos!!!

🏃♂️ Fueling runners at the New York City Marathon! 💪 We partnered with Runna to bring a Huel pop-up to the iconic race. We sampled and discussed the power of balanced nutrition for pre- and post-run fueling, making sure every visitor left energized and informed. The response was great and, of course, our beloved Huel truck was there to complete the experience! 🚚✨ At Huel, we’re proud to fuel athletes and anyone looking to unlock their potential with high-quality, convenient nutrition. Thanks to our weekend helpers Emma Lamont Linnea Schuessler Benjamin Crawford Hope Cary Taylor Jeffers, MBA

Beep Beep! Recently, we ran a mobile out-of-home campaign in the North East region and made a stop in New York City. Did you spot us on the road? Special thank you to Adgile Media Group for helping us pull this off!

Great day in Bentonville meeting with Walmart for our 2025 Performance Nutrition Line Review. Exciting things ahead for our partnership 🤝 Huge thank you to Collin Christian for the time today and Zack Tadlock for helping lead our innovation partnership and venture. 🚀 🚚 courtesy of Adgile Media Group 🙌 Applied Nutrition plc AN Performance Dark Horse Retail Group Walmart

This was a fun one! Laura Carinci with the idea after hearing it on a pod! To ideation mode with Kevin Valladares with current assets we had to make it all work. Jen Aurich with the photography!! Was fascinating learning about all the creative best practices of truck advertising with Tom Shea and his team Adgile Media Group to make sure our creative was well received. Will never forget the moment when we were in The Shop by JENNY BIRD and I looked up and saw the truck passing in front of the store.