About

A four-time Ad Age Agency of the Year, we work with companies wanting more and better for their brand and business. Amid a sea of sameness, we help organizations unearth, unfurl and unleash truly distinct positioning. READ MORE

We help new brands launch, but, more often, established brands relaunch. Sometimes it’s as agency of record. Sometimes it starts with a project. But, either way, it’s a job we take with utmost seriousness. It might be the only thing we take with seriousness, utmost or otherwise.

Working together, we can make your brand stand apart from the competition, recognize quantifiable enterprise value and grasp that holiest of grails: a unique spot in your target’s gray matter.

Work + News

“They can’t take your ballot”

At a time of unprecedented voter suppression, the mission of Vote From Home 2020 is more essential than ever. Our new “Suppress This” campaign helps them get ballots into the hands of disenfranchised voters of color. You can help, too.

CBS x Alfred Coffee · Emmy Awards

DCLA partnered CBS Studios with Alfred Coffee to reach Emmy voters and garner support for Star Trek: Picard. The timely work tapped into the diversity and inclusion central to Gene Roddenberry’s original vision.

Beautyscape influencers launch e.l.f. collection

It’s a beautiful day at DCLA with the launch of the e.l.f. Cosmetics Retro Paradise collection — the new collection from e.l.f.’s Beautyscape winners Alissa Holmes, Diana Curmei, Elicia Aragon, Jessa Green and Valeria Loren.
Female presenting influencer posing for the camera in a sleek white blazer and leather black pants. She is confident and raises her hand to perfect her long brown hair that is styled in a middle part and she's wearing make-up that accentuates her strong features. She's in front of a mirror with a table with SGX NYC products.

SGX NYC · #hairgoals

SGX NYC wanted to increase awareness around winning two Allure Best of Beauty Awards and reinforce the brand’s positioning with cost-conscious consumers looking for premium products. We hit the bullseye with three well-known #hairgoals influencers.

Two female presenting teens are at a table in a school library. One female with dark curly hair is sitting down with her back to the frame. The other is standing over the table with SweeTarts gummies in both hands and smiling.

SweeTARTS' Be Both is back

After the sweet success of last year’s 'Be Both' launch, SweeTARTS is doubling down on the campaign to Gen Z with brand new work in market now — and more to come in 2021.
Birds eye view over a male presenting young adult on the fire escape playing a guitar. Next to him is a notepad and pen and lush green plants creep into the frame. He appears relaxed as he plays his guitar.

Citi · Citigrammers

Citi wanted to increase awareness and favorability on social media, particularly within the music and dining categories. We assembled a team of influential visual artists to create the sort of shareable content the brand couldn't.
Nicotine equals brain poison. Two images in a grid. Image to the left is the campaign example featuring two male presenting teens with their heads down smoking a vape pen with a copy overlay that reads Nicotine equals brain poison. The right image is the gold Clio award on a black background.

Nicotine = Brain Poison = Clio

Our work for CTCP has awakened parents to the teen vaping epidemic and won a slew of awards in the process (not nearly as important, but nice). The latest is that most venerable of ad accolades: the Clio.
Diverse group of individuals and posing for the camera during the Coachella Music Festival. They are all self expressive through their make-up and fashion choices. Their individuality shines through as they each pose in their own unique way.

e.l.f. Cosmetics · Coachella

e.l.f. wanted to launch Beauty Shield, an all-new skincare line powered with antioxidants and SPF to help protect your skin against environmental aggressors. DCLA provided the perfect testing ground.
A grey-blue background with a circle of screenshots of various people speaking in a video conference call. In the center of the screenshot is text in white text letters that reads “Work Together.

Million-dollar talent from Upwork

To support COVID-19 projects, Upwork is donating a million dollars of time from their network of independent professionals. And who better to tell us about it than the pros themselves?
Action shot of a pink nike shoe as it hits the concrete. The person wearing the shoe is running. A pink Rakuten logo appears above the shoe as if it popped out from her shoe indicating the runner is a Rakuten user.

Rakuten

Loyalty or discount program advertising often dwells in the downscale world of the coupon clipper — a turnoff to savvier online shoppers. Our strategy was to present Rakuten as every bit as premium as the brands it offered rebates on.
Grid image of 20 US employees on video conference call together. They are diverse in their age and their genders. They all appear smiling and some chatting like they are familiar with each other and enjoy working together.

Cotteleer in Campaign US

DC’s chief experience officer speaks with Campaign about the virtual world and how COVID-19 has actually brought DC’s SF and LA offices closer.
A group of male presenting individuals are sitting on a living room couch laughing and enjoying a meal together. They appear to be enjoying quality time together over a nice meal. There are takeout boxes on the coffee table.

Grubhub

While the competition focused on transaction and technology, Grubhub really understood the near magical moment that occurs when the “food’s here.”

A mother of two lays in a hammock in her backyard. In the hammock with her is her two children. She appears a strong mother balancing work and motherhood. Her two daughters are smiling.

Empowering the pandemic parent

Amy, along with our CEO Andy, talking to MediaPost about the agency’s support plan for working parents suddenly at home with kids.
Image headline reads: One Juul Pod Contains the same amount of nicotine as a pack of cigarettes. The words “I just smoke at parties.” is written several times with words “at parties” crossed out so it reads, “I just smoke.” Two people are sharing a e-cigarette. They appear intoxicated and dazed.

California Tobacco Control · Social Smoking

Daily smoking has been on the decline for decades and yet casual smoking is actually on the rise. How do we get at-risk groups to see social smoking for what it is: plain old dangerous, unhealthy smoking.
ADWEEK. A scene from the Disney movie Frozen. Elsa, Anna, Olaf, and Sven are posing on a purple background.

Cotteleer talks COVID-19 in Adweek

As we seek to chart our way through the uncharted, DC’s Amy Cotteleer shares her thoughts on brands’ best course of action during the pandemic.
A gold beer can with the black and gold designed Brewlab label on a white background. The label is fully rolled out as an image so you can see all the design elements and text that appears on the label. The label is black and the text is gold and white.

Redhook Brewlab

Craft beer is like indie music. If you get too popular, you’re no longer cool. Just ask Redhook. In the early ’80s, they took off like a rocket, Anheuser Busch came calling and the brand was labeled a sellout. “Budhook!” the beer nerds snickered.

Black Forest, so juicy, so good. The Black Forest logo appears with a red gummy bear hanging over the top. In the background is a lush green forest. Sunlight peaks through and shines on a patch of green plants.

Another sweet new client

If you missed it in Adweek and Ad Age, DC went to the Black Forest and hit the gummy bear motherlode.
Grid image with two images. On the left is the Udemy logo, a burgundy background with a big letter “U” in white. The image on the right is a female presenting person in their twenties. She has several deserts in around her as she is sitting at a table with a slicing knife. She appears to be in mid sentence as if she is demonstrating something on the topic of baking.

Udemy

DC developed a stylish back-to-school look for this growing learning platform. A new brand identity and comprehensive visual system celebrated the diversity of teachers and students and brought humanity to a previously transactional-feeling platform.

Two male-presenting employees appear in an office. One is working in a booth while the other stands nearby. With a gentle push, the man standing moves the booth with the male working inside out of frame, revealing a second cubicle behind the first one. In the second cubicle there is another employee working except their environment looks like a work from home set-up.

Upwork goes nationwide

This week marks the launch of Upwork’s first national campaign. Broadcast TV, digital video and radio show us how all our offices could, in fact, be much larger than we realize.
Black and white photo of a group of Golden State Warriors basketball players sitting on the sidelines. They are laughing and poking good fun at each other. The team’s logo is in the top left corner in golden yellow and on the bottom right corner is text that reads “game recognize game” but the second “game” is upside down.

Golden State Warriors

One of the greatest teams ever assembled was just about to leave the city that supported them through thick and thin for 47 years. How do they say good-bye?
A diverse group of people are sitting outside on a well landscaped sidewalk in front of a mural of diverse faces in the Bahamas. They are all smiling as they take part in the award-winning Beautyscape influencer program.

Beautyscape in the Bahamas

Created by DCLA for e.l.f., the fifth installment of the award-winning influencer program is now underway in the Bahamas. And garnering more heat than ever.
Female presenting person with blonde hair and beige shirt poses for the camera on her couch holding a black cat with yellow eyes. She is smiling and the cat appears calm and happy in her arms.

e.l.f. Cosmetics · Cruelty-free

To promote e.l.f. as a vegan brand, we tapped five beauty influencers known for their animal activism. Incredible images were created, important causes were supported and sales were spiked.
Noel Johnson, Director of Marketing & Client Engagement at Duncan Channon, poses for a headshot in front of black and white vintage wallpaper.

New business and beyond

DC is pleased to announce the arrival of Noel Johnson as our first director of marketing and client engagements.

A female presenting individual poses in front of a printed background of giant e.l.f lipsticks. She is wearing black denim jeans, boots, a black top and a camo jacket.

e.l.f. Cosmetics · Christian Siriano

Designer Christian Siriano has been leading the charge for diversity in the world of A-list fashion. So who better to partner with a cosmetics brand that also celebrates beauty in all its forms?
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Services
While we call ourselves an advertising agency, we help clients in ways that deliberately stretch that definition. Across our two offices, we offer advertising creative, brand strategy, ID, digital, design and UX, media strategy, planning and buying, social influencer and experiential.
Strategy
  • Brand
  • Communications
  • Social
Creative
Media
  • Planning
  • Buying
  • Analytics
Duncan Channon’s experiential and influencer practice

Led by industry pioneer Amy Cotteleer, DCLA was building experiential and influencer campaigns long before they were even called that, creating award-snagging, KPI-busting work for Levi’s, Citibank, Nintendo and Netflix. Find out how DCLA could be the x factor for your brand.

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The Purpose Practice
Your company’s values — and how you act on those values — matters to your customers and employees. It’s not just about “being good” but being good for business; research shows that brands with purpose grow twice as fast as other brands. At DC, we’ve developed a practice to help you to turn your values into action.
Awards
Our Internet overlords tell us you guys all search for “award-winning ad agency,” so we put a sampling of said awards across disciplines right here to appease their robots. View All Awards
Four-time agency of the year
SF Addys best in show
Best media plan, O'Toole award
Global best of show
Campaign of the year
Winner
Best in show, Modern Healthcare Awards
Image award
Design and interactive
Advertising and interactive annuals
Top 10 digital agencies
Social media leader award
Campaign of the year
Best use of social media
Influencer program, Gold
Promotional top shop
Client experience
In over two decades, we’ve worked on nearly every category in the known universe. Below are current clients along with blasts from the past. If you don’t see a particular category, ask us. Our designers could only bear to put so many logos.

I found myself within a forest dark, for the straightforward pathway had been lost.