The 2016 It List
Recognizing the Top 100 Event Agencies of the Year
The 2017 It List call for submissions is now closed. Winners to be announced early August.
As our editorial board reviewed submissions for our 14th annual It List, we noticed many of the event industry’s top agencies celebrating major milestones. Nineteen agencies hit their “twenties” this year. Twelve agencies have been in business 30-40 years. And six agencies have joined the “40-plus” club.
If you ever needed proof that experiential has come into its own as a fully matured marketing discipline (with plenty of room for fresh new faces, of course), this year’s Top 100 might be it.
Since major milestones are always a good opportunity to take stock and set a new course for the future, we decided to do it, too. This year, our editorial team re-engineered the It List selection process to better assess the relative strengths of all the agencies in the experiential space. Our upgraded program deployed some of the toughest judging standards to date and provides event marketers with the kind of fair insights they need to find the best partners for their brands.
What were we looking for? The agency offerings needed to be fully experiential, a critical point of differentiation in a space where a lot of new marketing companies want to hang their shingle, and where some of the long-running shops may find that their focus has shifted elsewhere. The strategic value of the agency’s work needed to be supported by evolved offerings, client testimonials, case studies and awards. The quality of work needed to be high-caliber and, most importantly, consistent. The creative work needed to be strong. And as always, it didn’t matter whether the agency was a veteran or a newbie, longtime It Lister or not, so long as it raised the bar and furthered the evolution of the event industry. Indeed, hundreds entered—only 100 made it.
It was the toughest year to date to be selected for the It List, so let’s give a big round of applause to the 2016 Top 100 Agencies who hustled to hit every mark—and to an industry that has truly hit its stride. Congratulations.
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