Doe-Anderson

1915

Louisville, KY

Full-Service

137

Underdog

Most agencies chase rapid growth at any cost. Doe-Anderson chooses differently. We’ve turned down opportunities other agencies would kill for because we value career-building over profiteering.

Instead of answering to holding companies in distant boardrooms, we're fully employee-owned with 71 shareholders, meaning more than half our team owns a piece of the company they're building.

When the industry quietly retreated from DEI commitments, we doubled down, tripling our hiring from underrepresented backgrounds to 15 percent from 5 percent in 2020. When return-to-office demands begin to grow, we maintained our hybrid model with four work-from-anywhere weeks annually and two fully paid “recharge weeks” where we shut the doors completely.

Last year, we became certified as a B-Corp and restructured as a Public Benefits Corporation, holding ourselves to transparent standards of sustainability and inclusivity that virtually no other agency matches.

And here’s what it all adds up to: 92 percent employee retention versus 67 percent industry average — along with an average employee tenure of six years (or three times the industry standard). Average client tenure of 10 years and average target growth of 8 percent per year.

Oh, and clients lost in 2024? Zero.

Our entire business philosophy is summed up in three words: Work. People. Love.

It sounds simple, but it's only possible because we don't answer to anyone but ourselves. We are employee-owned, which means we put people before profits — not just in marketing copy, but in company policy too.

Every year, we partner pro-bono with a local Black-owned business to drive their marketing initiatives. In 2024, nearly 100 companies applied. No holding company would approve that kind of resource allocation, but when employees are shareholders, investing in our community becomes investing in ourselves.

And then there are our two fully paid “recharge weeks” — one for July 4th, another between the end-of-year winter holidays — which literally shut us down. We don't just give people time off. We eliminate the temptation to work entirely.

We’ve created what employees call an “open and evolving” culture. We're not afraid to have conversations that push us forward. When one of our team members described feeling “seen and valued” as a Black queer woman from day one, that wasn't HR talking. That was 71 employee-owners creating the workplace they actually want.

Our numbers not only blow the industry average out of the water but define our Culture Code.  For the people in the back of room who may have missed it, we respectfully remind you of our average employee tenure of 6 years (or 3x the industry average).  Average client tenure of 10 years. A 92% employee retention rate in 2024 – versus an industry average of just 67%. 

When brilliant people love what they do and love where they do it, the work speaks for itself.  This is our deeply felt philosophy.   

In an industry where client churn is constant, we build relationships that span decades: Maker's Mark for more than 50 years, Louisville Slugger for more than 50 years too. But it’s more than keeping clients — it’s about taking risks that pay off for them too.

Take our National Go Skateboarding Day activation for Roto-Rooter: Skaters in Roto-Rooter uniforms ripped half-pipes and generated 1.6M organic views — and turned work shirts into the surprise skate trend of 2024.

And for the Maker’s Mark String Theory holiday campaign, we transformed the brand’s iconic red wax into a magical metaphor, reaching more than 10M households and outperforming benchmarks by 33 percent.

These aren't just creative wins. They're business results that come from deep, long-term client partnerships.

Last year marked our highest client revenue in Doe-Anderson's 110-year history. We added three mission-driven clients focused on social betterment ( Roper St. Francis Healthcare, The Nationwide Association of Dam Safety and The American Printing House for the Blind); retained the North American Maker's Mark account in a competitive pitch after a global restructure, and expanded our scope with major brands like Jim Beam and Carrier.

We also earn awards. Last year, our OhioHealth “Keep Making Plans” cancer care campaign earned AdAge Small Agency Awards Campaign of the Year Silver, while this year we won a Silver for Best Agency Culture.

Because independence isn't just our business model. It's our competitive advantage.

Love. Literally.

In 1915, Elmer H. Doe was riding high as J. Walter Thompson's copy chief when he met his future wife in Louisville, Ky. He soon quit his gig, moved down south and opened the doors to the Elmer H. Doe Agency in Louisville.

Then, 10 years later, Doe hired Warwick Anderson, a former paint salesman, as an unpaid copy trainee. Anderson was so green that Doe tried to fire him multiple times. But something clicked, and in 1934, Doe made Anderson his partner. By 1939, they officially became Doe-Anderson.

The agency was built on a simple belief: Brands deserve deep partnership and long-term commitment. As a copywriter by trade, it was Doe who first said: "Giant oaks from tiny acorns grow" and it’s why we still use an acorn as our symbol today.

From a love story in 1915 to a century-plus of independence, we've proven that when you build something meant to last, it does. We're not good because we’re the oldest independent agency in America. We’re the oldest independent agency because we’re good.

Over the past few years, we've watched our industry retreat from the very values that define us. Companies quietly backed away from DEI commitments just as we were tripling our hiring from underrepresented backgrounds. Agencies demanded a return to office while we doubled down on hybrid flexibility. The pressure to conform — to “be practical” — is constant.

The biggest test came when industry giants started consolidating and cost-cutting. While holding companies slashed benefits and tightened budgets, we maintained our work-from-anywhere weeks, fully paid recharge periods and community investment programs like our “All Hands” pro-bono work with Black-owned businesses.

Every day, every quarter, every year we have to choose: Follow industry trends toward efficiency and standardization or stay true to our employee-owned model that prioritizes people over profits? When forced to choose between expanding rapidly or reinvesting in our culture and community, we always choose the latter.

Sometimes the biggest fight is staying true to yourself when everyone else is changing.

At Doe-Anderson, we already see a seismic shift as talent and clients realize that bigger isn't always better. The holding company model that promised efficiency delivered homogenization instead. Independent agencies like ours are proving that employee ownership, genuine community impact and long-term thinking aren't just nice-to-haves, they're competitive advantages.

The future belongs to agencies that can move fast, think long-term and put purpose alongside profit. Our B-Corp certification and Public Benefits Corporation restructuring are blueprints for what successful agencies will look like in 2030 and beyond.

We're already seeing this evolution in action:

·  Our partnership with University of Louisville's new Multicultural Marketing program isn't just meaningful coursework, it's development of the next generation of talent.

·  Our “All Hands” pro-bono program for Black-owned businesses isn't just giving back, it's demonstrating that agencies can be genuine partners in systemic change.

Independence means we can invest in what matters: people, relationships and community impact. We're building the future of agencies one employee-owner, one long-term client partnership, one community investment at a time.

The question isn't whether independence will survive. It's whether the rest of the industry will evolve fast enough to keep up.