Orange County-based advertising agencies boosted their combined revenue by more than 9% last year in a sector constantly challenging old norms.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe industry\u00a0is\u00a0changing\u00a0rapidly,\u00a0and agencies will be forced to make significant adjustments to their business models,\u201d Kyle Johnston, founding partner and president of Gigasavvy, told the Business Journal on Feb. 13.<\/p>\n
He added, \u201cCompanies haven\u2019t necessarily pulled back on advertising, but brands continue to pull more in-house; they are very distracted with how to handle AI.\u201d
Meanwhile, the competitive landscape for ad agencies \u201cis larger and more diverse than it\u2019s ever been.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though revenue dropped nearly 12% to $11.1 million last year, Laguna Beach-based Gigasavvy rose in the ranks to No. 13 on the Business Journal\u2019s list of largest ad agencies, up from No. 15. The agency\u2019s clients include chewy candy HI-CHEW, AAA and Toshiba.<\/p>\n
Innocean No. 1 by Revenue<\/p>\n
The 21 ad agencies surveyed by the Business Journal reported that revenue increased 9.3% last year to $1.23 billion, up from $1.12 billion in 2024.<\/p>\n
Huntington Beach-based Innocean USA came in at No. 1, as its revenues climbed 7.7% to $460 million.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t\u00a0pitch\u00a0ads,\u201d Innocean USA President Leslie Barrett told the Business Journal.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re in the business of creating value for our clients and we use our creativity to solve business problems.\u201d (see story, page 12)<\/p>\n
Innocean\u2019s clients include El Pollo Loco, Kia and Hyundai.<\/p>\n
Big Gains for Audio Focused Marketing<\/p>\n
RadioActive Media Inc. of Orange more than doubled its revenue last year to $14.9 million, for the biggest percentage gain on the list.<\/p>\n
RadioActive calls itself a \u201cfull-service audio-focused marketing agency specialized in direct response\u00a0radio and podcast advertising.\u201d<\/p>\n
The company did not return multiple requests for comment on its growth. In May, Inc. magazine ranked the central OC firm as one of the fastest-growing private companies in the Pacific region, with two-year growth of 344%.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis award celebrates more than our company\u2014it celebrates the partnerships we\u2019ve built with our clients,\u201d RadioActive stated on its website. \u201cFrom niche direct-to-consumer brands to Fortune 500 companies, our clients trust us to deliver results through high-impact audio placements, storytelling and strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n
The firm negotiates advertising placements for clients\u2014including brands such as British Airways and Expedia\u2014and secures spots on programs hosted by well-known media personalities and top podcast shows, such as Howard Stern, Adam Carolla and Bill Maher.<\/p>\n
Agency Ingram Micro jumped 23% to $399 million for the second spot. The Irvine-based agency specializes in technology marketing and advertising.<\/p>\n
Irvine-based Pacific Communications ranked third with an estimated $72.9 million. It has \u201cstrategic and creative partnerships\u201d with brands including Juv\u00e9derm, SkinMedica and Revolve, according to its website.<\/p>\n
Healthcare Success No. 14<\/p>\n
Irvine-based Healthcare Success remained at No. 14, though its 2025 revenue dropped almost 19% to $10.6 million.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter experiencing record growth in 2024, we lost several large clients in March of 2025. The reasons varied but included changing management teams and some poor fit clients,\u201d Healthcare Success CEO Stewart Gandolf told the Business Journal on Feb. 11.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile the client losses were inconvenient, we doubled down on our technology investments, most notably tools to respond to AI-driven searches on Google AI overviews and ChatGPT,\u201d according to Gandolf.<\/p>\n
New to the list this year: Sunday Brunch Agency in Huntington Beach. It came in at No. 21 as its 2025 revenue jumped by 50% to $1.5 million.<\/p>\n
The 10-year-old firm calls itself \u201cOrange County\u2019s first fully remote, female-owned marketing agency.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Orange County-based advertising agencies boosted their combined revenue by more than 9% last year in a sector constantly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":190269,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164],"class_list":{"0":"post-190268","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-anaheim","8":"tag-anaheim","9":"tag-anaheim-headlines","10":"tag-anaheim-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}