VB & P Venables Bell & Partners

Cultural relevance can be bittersweet, as Venables Bell & Partners learned in 2016.

- Patrick Coffee

Just as the agency and client Audi were negotiating to use David Bowie’s “Starman” in a Super Bowl ad, the rock icon tragically passed away at 69. Then the independent agency scored a chance to work on

Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, only to see her lose in what founder and chairman Paul Venables calls a “heartbreaking” election.

But it was, in all, an astounding 12 months for the San Francisco-based agency, which came into 2016 buoyed by global acclaim for its work on REI’s “#OptOutside” Black Friday campaign and then quickly set the stage for a strong year with its “Commander” Super Bowl spot, Audi’s tender tale of an aging astronaut who relives his glory days during a night drive with his son.

“There were no gimmicks: no dancing Chihuahua, no talking privates, no break dancing babies,” explains Venables. “We did it in our style, which is craft and storytelling. It was an exciting way to start the year.”

The Big Game appearance marked a high point for a shop whose namesake entered the ad industry in that most humble of roles: Madison Avenue receptionist.

Venables says he knew from his first days behind a front desk in Manhattan that he eventually wanted to launch his own agency, and he left his job as a creative director at Goodby Silverstein & Partners in 2001 to do just that. After struggling to stand out in the early years by focusing on every detail of his creative work, Venables had an epiphany: If he could attract and retain the right talent, everything else would eventually fall into place.