10 Is A Magic Number
It’s our 10th Fancyversary and we couldn’t be more thrilled! Ten years ago, when Erica and I held hands and took the great leap and decided to see what would happen if we tried to create the agency we could never find, we told ourselves, “hey, if it doesn’t work out, we can always go get another big-agency job.” I’m very glad to report we’ve been independent ever since.
It hasn’t been easy.
The blood, the sweat, the tears, the sleep deprivation, the self-doubt, the donut-fueled days and the wine-fueled nights, the cold-calling, the re-calling, the stage fright, the kid sleepovers (good thing they were already friends!) that went with the grown-up all-nighters, the finger crossing, the learning curve, the nerves…
But it has been exciting.
All that scary did come with a lot of satisfaction. If we hadn’t decided to go for it, if we didn’t take the chance, if we’d let fear overpower dreams we’d never have known what we’d be missing. The things we learned, the adventures we’ve had, the people we’ve met, the causes we’ve championed, the issues we’ve stood for (and the ones we won’t), the work we’ve created, the difference we’ve made.
At first it was just us.
One room, 100 square feet, and no limit to the dreams. Over the past ten years we’ve worked with dozens and dozens of women (and a few Fancy men), all of whom had raised their hands to say, “YES! I want to work in a new way. A way that works for the way women want to work. A way that will allow me to fit my job into my life, and not the other way around.” Thanks to Covid, we now have 25 offices around the country.
And some brave clients.
We’ll always have a warm spot in our hearts for iluminage, the brand that gave us the courage to do advertising differently - from the way we created the work, to the way we built the agency. Putting women first, treating them as the interesting, intelligent, badasses they are.
Then a lot more people came to the party.
Clients that wanted to change the way they marketed to women. Clients who wanted to make a statement about who they are and what they believe. Clients who wanted to push the cultural needle forward with their products and their marketing. Clients like Lion’s Den and pH-D Feminine Health and Hair Biology and Poly Prep. Clients like Mod Mouth and Me and Better Natured. Clients like Because and Parallel and Exuviance.
It seems like a day. And also like one million years.
But one thing we know for certain is that Fancy’s ten trips around the track wouldn't have been near as fun or as thrilling without our Fancy family of clients, colleagues, and creative friends. Thank you all for inspiring us, pushing us, and most of all, for believing in us.
