VaynerMedia CEO Gary Vaynerchuk says his bootstrapped digital media company is generating more than $130 million and is coming for WPP and Omnicom — with no 'meaningful competitor' in sight
As the advertising establishment settles in for a week of hob-nobbing in Cannes for the annual, rosé-soaked ritual of making deals and collecting awards on the French Riviera, Gary Vaynerchuk has some bad news for them.
Vaynerchuk started his ad agency 10 years ago as a scrappy social-media agency. It's grown into VaynerX, which houses six businesses including analytics, consulting, and digital media, and it has blue-chip clients like GE and Chase, and employs more than 800 people, and is profitable.
At a time when agency holding companies are under attack, VaynerX boasts it's truly differentiated from industry giants like Omnicom and WPP and is winning business from some of the industry's titans.
In a rare, wide-ranging interview about VaynerX, Vaynerchuk shared numbers for the first time about the company's financials and detailed how his company is different from the agency giants.
"We're in massive growth mode," he told Business Insider.
Vaynerchuk is nothing if not a self-promoter, though, and detractors and even fans say the agency has come a long way but that it has to grow its international presence, creative chops, and talent to truly compete, though.