SMALL AGENCY AWARDS
Familiar Creatures gets serious results by not taking itself seriously
Ad Age | July 23, 2026
by Judann Pollack
“In an industry that often takes itself too seriously, [we] believe the best work happens when you don’t.”
That’s a quote from the entry of Familiar Creatures, the agency that last year brought the world such delightful advertising oddities as a 23-hour song on Spotify in praise of mayonnaise and a yeti and alien debating the plausibility of a superior frozen hamburger.
Fun, yes, but effective? As the burger ad’s protagonists might say, seeing is believing.
See all the Small Agency 2026 winners
Familiar Creatures’ efforts for Duke’s Mayo lifted the brand into the No. 2 place in the category behind Hellmann’s last year, leapfrogging Kraft. What’s more, Duke’s parent company sold last year for $1.5 billion—and when it hired the agency, its value was $300 million. Another of the shop’s longtime accounts, Crunch Fitness, also sold last year for more than $1.5 billion, an account the agency said it’s grown by 1,031%.
These are no small feats for a nine-person shop based in Richmond, Virginia, which also boasted a 20% win rate in 2025 and 32% growth in revenue to $4.7 million, according to its entry. This success earned Familiar Creatures the title of Small Agency of the Year, 1-10 Employees, Silver at the 2026 Ad Age Small Agency Awards.
In response to rivals that were attempting to co-opt Crunch’s positioning of personal training with a welcoming atmosphere, Familiar Creatures doubled down on the brand’s positive vibes by devising a bouncy music video around the messaging of “Feel more.” The push delivered an 11% increase in leads per club year over year, the agency stated.
For Duke’s, the agency built on its “Welcome to Duke’s Country” campaign of 2024 by creating an anthem that stretched for a full 23 hours. That was followed by the brand’s first-ever national commercial, “Duke’s is coming,” launched literally by dropping plush mayonnaise jars from the sky into the crowd at the 2026 Duke’s Mayo Bowl championship game.
And it used some unfamiliar creatures to prove to doubters that Bubba Burgers are “better than fresh,” leaning into the incredulity with deadpan TV, social and display ads featuring a yeti and an alien.
By the close of grilling season, Bubba was a believer: U.S. dollar sales rose 6% and units were up about 3% year over year.
...
Read the full article on Ad Age.
