22Squared has always existed as a fiercely independent advertising & media agency, dedicated to growing brands’ impact & relevance in the market with a century of success. Today they launch Guided by Good, a parent company with a portfolio of sister companies dedicated to changing the world’s understanding of advertising.
In the last 35 years, consumer faith in advertising has declined by more than half. Advertising professionals have also lost faith in agencies because people are treated as commodities, instead of the heart and soul of the industry. Clients are increasingly frustrated by disparate holding company agendas, a lack of senior attention, and failure of traditional agencies to respond to the evolving business landscape.
Guided by Good will be overseen by 22Squared’s longtime Chairman & CEO Richard Ward, alongside an executive operational team. They will focus on the expansion of the portfolio’s capabilities to meet the needs of their clients with a focus on enduring growth. The company as a whole will continue to prioritize the holistic health and professional development of their employees and its DEI practice.
“We are a people-first organization and that was never more clear than this year,” said Richard. “We have always had equal focus on our clients and our people, which has proven to be a winning strategy. Our industry is at its best when it reflects that balance. Guided by Good aspires to be advertising's new conscience.”
Effective as of June 1, 2020, Guided by Good and its group of independent, yet interoperable business units are able to service brands across the entire marketing spectrum in three crucial ways:
- Independent Companies with Flexibility: Each company under Guided by Good will operate with their own core specialities, staffing and compensation models. Yet when there’s need, they have the ability to unify in flexible combinations based on whatever problem is presented by companies of all sizes, from startups to established brands.
- Expanded Services: 22Squared will continue to create culturally powerful ideas that build enduring brands; Trade School will help brands create meaningful content at-scale; and Dendro will work upstream with brands to ensure their marketing and growth strategy is optimized.
- Human Connections: And most importantly, Guided by Good will provide more opportunities to help brands help people in ways that are consistent with the sustained good we feel marketing can do, including our multicultural and inclusion efforts across the portfolio.
22Squared: 22Squared continues to serve as the independent creative center within the Guided by Good portfolio. With creativity at its core, 22Squared integrates media, comms planning, strategy, analytics, user experience design & development and production into a single cohesive unit, designed to help brands find their conviction, and turn it into action for people. The leadership team has also expanded, with continued aggressive growth plans. 22Squared’s Chief Client Officer Erica Hoholick, and Chief Creative Officer Matt O’Rourke will continue serving in their expanded roles, while Chief Strategy Officer Brandon Murphy will take a hybrid leadership role across 22Squared and Dendro.
“I believe 22Squared is perfectly positioned for this moment,” said Erica Hoholick, Chief Client Officer. “The landscape is increasingly more complex and our integrated model ensures efficiency & effectiveness for our clients while our independence allows us to invest and pivot quickly in ways traditionally structured holding companies cannot.”
Trade School: Trade School, led by managing directors Genna Franconi and Sanders Hearne, will serve as a holistic content shop and production studio that makes high-quality, strategically crafted content at scale. Trade School brings together content strategy and comms planning expertise with a fast, nimble creative and making process. This leads to content that is smart, beautiful, human, and most importantly, effective in solving client business problems. Trade School has already created work for The Home Depot and SharkNinja and will soon unveil work for a new Fortune 50 client.
“Trade School was created to fill a gap in the marketplace for creating efficient and effective content at scale, without compromising quality,” said Genna Franconi, Managing Director. “We believe that no matter how big or how small a piece of content may be, it’s our responsibility to make it human – to make it meaningful to that person. That’s why content strategy is a critical part of our offering, ensuring that our work is audience based and insight driven, to meet people where they are with content that matters to them.”
Dendro: Dendro is an upstream creative consultancy whose aim is to break the cycle of short-term gains and help companies chart a path to sustainable growth. With a unique combination of analytical skills, business acumen, brand strategy, and inventive creativity Dendro fills the gap between management consultants and agencies. Helmed by 22Squared chief strategy officer Brandon Murphy, the Dendro team will help launch brands for early stage companies, help mid-stage companies looking for their next level of growth, and help established companies seeking ways to innovate.
“We have an intense focus on empathy. We know that if companies can solve real problems for people, they can grow while helping the world at the same time,”said Brandon Murphy, Chief Strategy Officer. “I know that it feels like brands have lost relevance in today’s hyper-growth focused culture, but we think they are more important than ever to sustainable growth.
About Guided by Good
Guided by Good (GBG) is an employee owned, independent group of companies, focused on building adaptive, specialized, creative solutions that help brands grow and succeed best by improving the lives of the people they market to. Under the GBG umbrella, sits a suite of business units that meet client’s critical needs, and offer an end to end solution with all of the collaboration and efficiencies that can only be offered by a single independent entity. Our company portfolio includes: 22Squared, integrated creative & media company; Trade School, holistic content shop; and Dendro, creative growth consultancy. GBG includes over 20 brands across numerous categories and disciplines. For more information about Guided by Good, please visit https://www.guidedbygood.com.
About 22Squared
22Squared is an integrated creative & media company who uses creativity to grow business. We’re 307 brand builders, cultural instigators and do gooders whose job is to help brands find their conviction and turn it into action for people. And over the last 98 years, we’ve done so for some of the most iconic brands including The AdCouncil, AdventHealth, Baskin-Robbins, Columbia Care, NAACP, Netflix, Paramount, Publix Super Markets, SunTrust (now TRUIST) and Southeast Toyota Distributors. For more information about 22Squared, please visit www.22Squared.com. You can also follow the agency’s goings-on on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
About Trade School
We make smart, beautiful content that drives client business, and have done so for brands including The Home Depot, SharkNinja, Fridababy, Buffalo Wild Wings, and Sweetwater Brewing. Check us out at www.tradeschool.works.
About Dendro
Dendro is a creative growth consultancy that uses deep empathy to uncover human truths and unlock business growth for startups and established companies. Whether we are launching new brands that matter or helping incumbents disrupt their own category, we blend analytical rigor with creative genius. We are experts in both finding your path to growth and making it happen in a way that's good for people, business, and the world. We have worked on established brands like The Home Depot, Publix, SharkNinja, and Mizuno as well as emerging brands like ColumbiaCare, Water Street Tampa, and Sweetwater Brewery. For more information about Dendro please visit https://www.dendro.co.
