In the summer of 2021, Jared Belsky, former CEO of digital powerhouse agency 360i, and Sean Belnick, founder of the online furniture retailer Bizchair, got together with the idea to create Acadia. As long-time participants in the digital marketing space, the two friends had experienced first-hand the gap in the market for an agency partner who could serve mid-market challenger brands with all the sophisticated services needed to grow and adapt in a dynamic environment.
The idea was scribbled on to a napkin at their local coffee shop in Atlanta, The Chastain.
As the napkin sketches out, the idea was to bring together Analytics, Social, SEO, Paid, Retail Media & Marketplaces, and CRO/Development all under one roof to help clients grow their sales, subscriptions, and businesses. The mid-market in particular has been under-served in terms of data driven sophistication, and we believe that robust analytics and insights is the foundation for all other marketing initiatives.
Acadia brought a number of incredible businesses (Techwood, Bobsled Marketing, Nicely Built, Imagine Media, Lift361 and Shopfluency, and Splittesting.com) and these founders came together rallying around four core values: Community, Curiosity, Candor and Can-Do. These core values inform how we hire, what clients we work with, and just about every decision we make. They live in our Slack channels, they live in our on-boarding, they live in our town-halls. Our goal is to remind the industry that greatness is not just about great results delivered, but also how they get delivered.
In the summer of 2021, Jared Belsky, former CEO of digital powerhouse agency 360i, and Sean Belnick, founder of the online furniture retailer Bizchair, got together with the idea to create Acadia. As long-time participants in the digital marketing space, the two friends had experienced first-hand the gap in the market for an agency partner who could serve mid-market challenger brands with all the sophisticated services needed to grow and adapt in a dynamic environment.
The idea was scribbled on to a napkin at their local coffee shop in Atlanta, The Chastain.
As the napkin sketches out, the idea was to bring together Analytics, Social, SEO, Paid, Retail Media & Marketplaces, and CRO/Development all under one roof to help clients grow their sales, subscriptions, and businesses. The mid-market in particular has been under-served in terms of data driven sophistication, and we believe that robust analytics and insights is the foundation for all other marketing initiatives.
Acadia brought a number of incredible businesses (Techwood, Bobsled Marketing, Nicely Built, Imagine Media, Lift361 and Shopfluency, and Splittesting.com) and these founders came together rallying around four core values: Community, Curiosity, Candor and Can-Do. These core values inform how we hire, what clients we work with, and just about every decision we make. They live in our Slack channels, they live in our on-boarding, they live in our town-halls. Our goal is to remind the industry that greatness is not just about great results delivered, but also how they get delivered.
Our mission is ambitious, yet simple: Be an elite digital growth platform for the mid-market disrupter, in order to create opportunity, meaning and opportunity for the communities we serve. With a single digit employee attrition rate in an industry that is famous for turning over 40% of staff, we know we are doing something meaningful for our team-members, and judging by the results, we know we are making a difference in our clients lives as well. We are an unfinished product. We are relentless, always improving, and occasionally making mistakes along the way. Our promise is to be the best, and most integrity-filled partner or employer you will ever know, and that we will improve every day.
As of 2023, Acadia is over 200 people strong, with our headquarters in Atlanta, but employees working remotely from Toronto, to Serbia, to Perth Australia, and all parts in between. We proudly work on brands like Godiva, JUST water, 7-11, California Pizza Kitchen, TULA, Credo, Bark, The Atlanta Mission, Maggianos, Red Roof Inn, and many more who trust us to help grow their brands and companies.
Today, that napkin sketch of the Acadia “house” stands proudly on a wall of newer accomplishments like the 2022 Ad Age Small Agency Of The Year, as a reminder of both our beginnings and our future at Acadia.
