merit
2001
Minneapolis, MN (Headquarters); Charlotte, NC; Delafield, WI
Full-service Integrated
150
Underdog
broadhead was built to dismantle the traditional agency assembly line in favor of something more human, more agile and far more effective. We’ve rejected the traditional agency structure in favor of something smarter: A fully integrated, human-centered model where strategy, data science, PR and creative are one seamless, collaborative team. That structure lets us make faster, bolder decisions like building an in-house analytics lab in record time, integrating multiple agency acquisitions seamlessly, and 21% all-time annual growth. We’re not afraid to challenge how things should be done if it means a smarter path forward.
We live by a simple rule: radical candor without ego (our culture book literally says “don’t be an a**hole”). The result is an agency where sharp thinking and sharper instincts can thrive. We treat every brief as a chance to rewrite the playbook rather than stay inside it, and no one is afraid to flip the script if it leads to better work. We’re proudly unorthodox, fiercely adaptable and relentlessly ahead of the curve. We don’t just break rules. We build what comes next. We don’t just get it. We get after it.
broadhead is team-first, ego-last. Independence isn’t a status, it’s a superpower. The broadhead Way reminds us to think big, stay positive and out-plan the obstacles together. We win by a culture of hustle and heart, not budget. Clients don’t just get a partner; they get a team that punches above its weight and takes pride in the uphill climb. Five internal mantras are simple but sacred: understand the client’s business, find a way, sweat the small stuff, create no surprises and make our clients look good. Because there’s no holding-company hierarchy, teams have the freedom to pick the right specialists, remix processes on the fly and share numbers in full daylight. Quality control feels personal, so collaboration is grounded in transparency and mutual accountability, and trust runs deep.
The independent mindset doesn’t just give us freedom; it gives us fuel. Without corporate gatekeepers or drawn-out approval chains, we’ve been able to move at a pace most mid-sized agencies only dream about.
In just three months, concepted and launched our own proprietary AI tool, Butter, and fully adopted it across teams. What started with natural hesitation quickly turned into a culture-wide embrace of possibility. That spirit of fearless experimentation is baked into everything we do.
Our investment in tech didn’t stop there. We’ve grown an 18-person (and expanding) data science group that works shoulder to shoulder with our creative, PR and social teams, connecting everything we do to a single, measurable spine of KPIs. And with Kaleidoscope, our custom marketing mix model, we’re delivering a game-changing 130x return on media investment for clients who trust us to lead boldly. We’re not waiting for permission to innovate. We’re building what’s next on our own terms.
Our history began in 2001 when Dean Broadhead opened his own shop in one category: agriculture. We were good at it. (And we still are. Just this year, we became the top agency by volume in agriculture in the U.S.) Yet, agriculture has never been a smaller percentage of our business than it is today. A decade ago, we chose to expand and diversify from our agricultural roots. First, we targeted consumer business tied to the farm-to-food movement. Then, into the closely linked healthcare industry. And transportation? No sector in our economy is as tied to food and agriculture. It was another great fit. We’ve grown since 2001 for a simple reason: clients trust us to help them grow. The recipe is not magic. We help our clients look good by delivering work that delivers performance. Dean designed and built an agency to help brands that help people eat, move and live by weaving creative, media, PR and analytics together without corporate guardrails, becoming the largest Minnesota independent agency in 2018: a stature we maintain today.
Without question, placing the right bets. As an independent, we don’t have the financial backing of a parent company to underwrite major investments in technology, infrastructure and new talent/services to be competitive. That’s on us.
That said, we’d have it no other way because our incentive is strong to make those bets pay. We started our strategy group with one strategist. Today we have ten. We needed to become more predictive in our performance outcomes. We hired one of the industry’s foremost leaders in data science. Four years later, our data science and performance marketing group numbers a dozen and a half. In 2024, we made the mid-six figure decision to go all-in on AI, launching Butter, our enterprise AI platform, seeing it as paramount to the future of our agency. And the stories go on and on.
How you overcome the challenge is by recognizing that the risk that you’re taking is rooted in the need to continually improve for clients. When you focus on true client need, any investment has a reasonable chance of working. There are no guarantees of immediate financial returns on investments other than building a company culture that celebrates that you can never stand still. It’s the job of an agency partner to push; to challenge the status quo, with a commitment to testing, learning and improving everything we do.
That’s what being a strong independent agency partner is all about.
Like any business, you need to pick your pew. Without question, it will be challenging to be a generalist, full service independent agency-of-size going forward. It will be nearly impossible to be that and not fully embrace AI.
There is a strong future for independent agencies that have the ability that bring unique core strengths to the table, allowing them to be agile, consultative and deliver outcomes in a cost-effective manner. For us, that means fully embracing AI and automation across our disciplines. Eighteen months ago we launched our AI enterprise agency platform to help our team members more efficiently accomplish tasks less valuable so they can focus their energy on work clients value more. A year and a half in, we have a culture committed to testing, learning and evolving what’s possible with AI.
As we look to the future, we believe our fusion of AI and instinct will be our unfair advantage. We will deliver more robust insights faster, creative that will lead to better outcomes and automation that will truly help us deliver on the client need of better, faster and more efficient. But that starts with a culture of belief. It’s one thing to have the technology, it’s another to have a team committed to harnessing the power of AI to multiply their expertise. That’s the role we see our agency playing to ensure our independence for the next generation to come.
