The strong survive.
During 2026 planning, I began looking back at 2025. 2025 was among the top of “unique” years in our 36+ years in business. We started the year a bit behind, managing through a tough loss. Yet we made that up by keeping our heads down and taking the high road. We are grateful for our clients and marketing partners who believe in results-oriented marketing and helped 2025 finish within one percent of our best year on record (which was 2024).
We are so grateful for our clients, staff, vendors and those who cheer us on. As we began to summarize our accomplishments, the list grew very long. So long that I felt compelled to publicly give kudos to our staff.
Our official theme for the year was “Blazing New Trails.” Our industry is always in change, but we knew 2025 would require evolution and adaptation on our part to ensure our clients’ success. So, we reinforced that notion while having a bit of fun with it. Other phrases that took hold were “Kicking ass and taking names,” “Fearless” and “Not my first rodeo.” Everyone got it and bought in.
In May, we officially celebrated our 35th anniversary (founded in October 1989) with a permanent art installation in our office. Each piece on our walls was produced by former and current VI staff. From Matt Goad (1994) and Shogo Nakagawa (2001) to Mark Moad and Aaron Cahill, we are proud to have worked with all of them and to honor them permanently alongside the likes of current VI staff Erin Robinson, Mike Anderson and Jennifer Blevins. We installed almost 30 pieces of art.
The 2025 Oklahoma ADDY Awards were an embarrassment of riches. We won 24 Gold awards and 40 in total. In addition, we also won Best of Show, Best Integrated Campaign and People’s Choice. At the District ADDY level (Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Oklahoma) we won Best of Show as well — but for a different campaign than what won in Oklahoma. We also won a Special Judges Award in addition to the 18 ADDYs. And of course, we placed at the National ADDYs as well. They say that if you win one Best of Show in your career, you’re lucky. And if you win two, you’re legit. We have won eleven (11) in the last 28 years.
Our staff of expert marketers and behavior change specialists were invited to speak at six national conferences in 2025. We teach professionals how to market (but not everything that we know). We consider it a great honor to be asked.
Our agency was honored at the Empowering Women event for the third year in a row for elevating and advancing women in the workplace and being a family-friendly workplace that values the demanding roles working women have. We were also named a Top Workplace for the fourth consecutive year. We have worked hard to create a culture that attracts the very best marketing professionals, and we will always make that a priority.
Our Carne Diem chili cook-off that benefits United Way had a record year, despite rainfall right when the gates opened. We welcomed 57 amateur recipes, 12 professional entries, 18 judges, a live band, pepper-eating contestants and a professional line dance instructor to make this OKC’s favorite street party once again.
VI knows that a staff from diverse backgrounds makes our work better. We believe in equity among staff compensation, regardless of their department. And we absolutely want all staff to feel as included as the next person in everything that we do. That’s DEI to us, and we work hard at it. We had 14 DEI events that included panel discussions, volunteering, donations, community activities and a special presentation from John Kennedy on the installation of the Clara Luper sit-in plaza around the corner from our office.
Our staff volunteers their time for at least 18 community organizations that strive to make the world better. We are proud and honored that they want to dedicate their time to helping others. We believe that everyone should do so.
We trained 15 college students to enter the professional workforce through our paid internship program and college events. As Oklahoma’s largest full-service advertising and marketing firm, we take this responsibility very seriously. While some of these students end up working for VI, others use their experience to land great jobs elsewhere and we are proud to cheer them on.
Our weekly Food for Thought series must be about 25 years running now. In 2025, we held more than 40 of these lunch-and-learn sessions to train our staff to be better marketers and better business professionals overall. Simple math says that’s about 1,000 of these opportunities that we have provided to make VI better so our clients get better results.
We are proud to support so many nonprofits through donations, volunteering and gratis marketing projects. We counted 18 of them. Some of those we are proud to support are:
- Limbs for Life
- American Heart Association
- Not Your Average Joe
- Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma
- OKC Museum of Art
We awarded nearly 400 core value pins to staff throughout the year and celebrated four quarterly core value award winners. The values that we live, hire and reward by are: Smart, creative, driven, respectful, dependable and honorable.
VI enthusiastically welcomed two new babies into our family. Eight new staff and three new spouses.
Our awards continued throughout the year with Tellys, Emmys, Shortys, Marketing Excellence, PRSA and Collision awards given for superior work by our staff. We are, by far, Oklahoma’s most decorated agency. And this track record goes back 30 years. Consistently great work.
We raised our PR game in 2025 and earned 83 major earned media hits across every major news category. VI was featured in outlets such as Forbes, Travel + Leisure, MarTech, The Oklahoman, The Observer, MarTech Edge, LA Examiner, The CEO Project and Martha Stewart.
Our quarterly agency meetings introduced us to “Houses” that each associate was chosen for. These houses encourage cross-pollination among staff who don’t typically work together. Our Thanksgiving lunch and Christmas ornament exchange do the same.
This is not a yearly email. But it is, indeed, a compliment to the VI team that works so hard every day for our clients, for their families, for our brand, for our culture and for our success. And it is a huge thank you to all of those who support us in one way or another. And a warning to those who doubt us: We ride at dawn.
