Фирма Fingerpaint Group увеличила выручку на 21% и стала главным агентством для 80 клиентов в фармацевтике

Fingerpaint Group’s CEO Bill McEllen describes the agency’s 2025 in terms even a CPG marketer could understand. “It was a hell of a year,” says McEllen with a laugh. The independent agency reported a 21% increase in North American revenue, rising from $186.3 million in 2024 to $225.1 million in 2025. While most agencies tout something special in the watercooler that drives values and work, Fingerpaint has long been known as a cultural standout. The agency’s leadership team is unified in its belief that Fingerpaint’s success is based entirely on the bedrock of its culture, the legacy of founder Ed Mitzen, who recently stepped back from operations but remains on the board and closely invested in the company’s future. McEllen emphasizes that despite Mitzen’s transition away from the day-to-day, the culture he established remains deeply embedded across the organization due to the long tenure of the leadership team. The average tenure of the four executive team members interviewed for this profile is more than 10 years; the average for the company’s frontline employees is slightly more than seven years, remarkable in an industry known for high turnover. “Fingerpaint was built differently from the start,” McEllen says. “Our primary mission is to be where the best people come to do their best work.” This human-centric base is increasingly powered by a “bottom-up” energy. Group president Mark Willmann highlights the agency’s employee resource groups (ERGs) as a primary example of this vitality. “Those ERGs and the work they’re doing — the safe spaces they’re creating for our people to have hard conversations about things such as neurodiversity or the honest communication of the truth — it’s just a really safe environment,” says Willmann. The stability created by that kind of openness allowed Fingerpaint to successfully unify its multidisciplinary portfolio, spanning marketing, medical and market access, under a single leadership vision in 2025. This integration included the launch of Fingerpaint Medical — combining MedThink and Fingerpaint Medical Communications — alongside the acquisitions of BlackPoint Consulting Group and L&M Healthcare Communications. The agency’s evolution is driven by its Wet Paint Innovation Lab, which produces tech-forward tools such as Prism Insights, a proprietary AI tool that distills vast amounts of unstructured data to accelerate the “time to insight” for brand teams. Michelle Petroff, lead of Fingerpaint’s Applied AI Group, emphasizes that the agency views AI as a “transformation that can amplify our ‘special sauce’” rather than a replacement for human talent. These capabilities have solidified Fingerpaint’s status as a trusted partner for 95% of the top 20 global pharmaceutical companies. Clients are increasingly moving beyond single-service engagements to name the agency as their comprehensive agency of record across the full product lifecycle. Fingerpaint is now AOR for 80 clients. “They’re incredibly easy to work with,” says Clint Petree, senior director of marketing operations for petcare at Zoetis. “They communicate clearly and follow through quickly. They’re collaborative partners who actively listen and bring strong ideas to the table.” For the remainder of 2026, McEllen remains focused on solving “hard problems” through authentic, people-focused leadership rather than joining a “race to fastest and cheapest.” Says McEllen: “The foundation of the organization remains unchanged, which makes growth easier.” What is an interesting way you’ve seen a brand use AI? Stanford and Harvard’s collaboration on the ED-Explain initiative is the kind of work we admire. They saw an opportunity for AI to meet patients where they are, using LLMs and generative video to supplement emergency department discharge instructions in ways that boost comprehension and health literacy. It’s a smart innovation that has proved to improve communication quality metrics. — Leadership team