50 on Fire will bring together D.C.'s best and brightest to recognize the disruptors, luminaries and visionaries that are pushing our city forward. Buy your tickets now and join us on Dec. 10 at Howard Theatre for the celebration and winners reveal.
Innovation comes in many forms and that includes the fast-paced world of marketing and advertising, which is being shaped by technology as much as any other industry. D.C. has plenty of impressive people and companies changing how businesses get themselves noticed. Take a look at our list of finalists to find out who might be behind that viral video or helped connect you to a brand you hadn't ever heard of before.
Brad Heidemann, Tahzoo - Heidemann has overseen massive growth for "customer experience" agency Tahzoo in the last year. Tahzoo, which uses data analytics to improve how businesses target customers was ranked by Inc. magazine as 85th on its list of fastest-growing private companies. And that was before Tahzoo acquired Netherlands-based digital agency HintTech in May, making it the largest independent agency of its kind in the world.
Karen Zuckerman, HZDG - Zuckerman runs digital marketing and advertising agency HZDG as both president and chief creative officer. She originally started the company from her basement in the 1980s, growing it to nearly 200 employees in five offices. She also runs Dormify, a design and decorating company for college student built in partnership with her daughter.
Contactually - Customer relationship management software startup, Contactually has had a very good year. It just recently raised $8 million in a new funding round after hitting 12,000 customers. Contactually focuses on helping users make smart communication decisions with recorded contacts using data analytics.
TrackMaven - Digital marketing and intelligence agency TrackMaven closed a $14 million funding round at the end of last year, fueling an impressive growth through 2015. The new capital boosted the company's staffing growth and helped enable it to move to a new office space, four times the size of its previous space, that could accommodate its growing numbers and all of its corgi pictures and toys.
CircleBack - CircleBack works with artificial intelligence and machine learning software to help people organize, update and track important contacts even if they change locations, jobs or phone numbers. It's a big help for any industry and led to CircleBack getting named one of the Trending 40's fastest growing companies.
Don Neal, 360 Live Media - Don Neal founded 360 Live Media in 2011 after decades working in business in marketing for major brands and organizations. Since he founded it, 360 has been growing quickly even as he also does graduate teaching work at Georgetown University. The company also won DC Inno's Coolest Company award this summer.
Eleven Eleven PR - A boutique marketing firm aimed specifically at consumer startups, Eleven Eleven was founded by Sara Morgan, herself a former tech startup founder. Though the firm consists only of her, associate Avery Walker and a rotating cast of interns, the company has been key to boosting the brands of many tech-related startups.
LMO Advertising - Digital media and advertising agency LMO has gotten a lot of attention in the last year, especially when it started recruiting interns using Snapchat. It's been ranked as the largest advertising agency four years in a row, this year adding Google and George Washington University as partners. It's also consistently won awards for company culture, including as a recipient of DC Inno's Coolest Company award this year.
RedPeg Marketing - RedPeg has seen continual growth, this year not excepted. Notably, it hosted and brought in more than $150,000 for the 10th annual Chance for Life Charity Poker Tournament supporting Pediatric Spinal Cord Cancer. That was one of over 2,500 events that RedPeg helped run this year.
Brightline Interactive - Digital design studio Brightline Interactive is best known for creating "brand experiences" for big names like the NFL, NCAA, Levis, Verizon and creating a virtual racing experience with Toyota.
Social Driver - Known in particular for its work with education and healthcare as a digital agency, Social Driver has been adding new clients and staff all year. It moved to a new office and added expanded its numbers by almost 50 percent, especially vital as it takes on a growing caseload of social media campaigning.
Vox Media - Vox Media officially became a unicorn this summer when was valued at over $1 billion following a $200 million funding round from NBCUniversal. It's innovative advertising technology, used with its popular brands like SB Nation, Vox.com, Eater, The Verge and Re/code have opened up a new space for companies looking to advertise online.
Gabriel Marketing Group - Known for its business-focused marketing for tech companies, Gabriel has expanded into consumer-facing marketing this year. That's fueled a geographic spread to the West Coast and internationally, with new staff to handle the longer list of clients and more revenue coming in to make it worthwhile.
XAPPmedia - Business for interactive audio advertising developer XAPPmedia has been booming this year. New streaming platforms and award nominations have shown that it was ahead of the curve in looking at the future of mobile ads. A $3.8 million funding round earlier this year has also given it scope to start really expanding where it offers its technology.
SpeakerBox Communications - One of the best-known PR companies for startups, SpeakerBox has been helping launch companies for almost two decades. This year, it's been picked as a finalist and winner for several awards, including by DC Inno as a winner of the Coolest Company award this year.
RainKing - RainKing does sales intelligence focused on tech and marketing buyers, with a database of several hundred thousand companies. This year, it got a $67 million investment from Spectrum Equity, and was picked as one of Trending 40's fastest growing companies
Alisa Valudes Whyte, Merritt Group - The CEO of the Merritt Group, Whyte has been a part of the company since 1997. She's helped get the company on major accounts with the government and big companies like Microsoft, Booz Allen Hamilton and LexisNexis. Her focus on tech and healthcare have helped make the Merritt Group something of a powerhouse in the field.
