“What Our Industry Needs More Of”: Behind the Merger of Two Seattle Independents

DNA and Little Hands of Stone (LHOS), two of Seattle's most respected ad agencies, announced a merger, the result of which was the launch of a brand new agency named DNA&STONE. 

“Together as DNA&STONE,” read a press release announcing the joining of forces, “the two agencies have developed a collaborative methodology that brings together the trust, accountability and proven processes of DNA’s 26-year history with the no-holds-barred creativity and agility of Little Hands of Stone.”

DNA&STONE will be operating in DNA’s current offices in Seattle and all 40 employees of both agencies will stay on under the new company. Under the terms of the agreement, Michael Boychuk and Matt McCain, co-founders of Little Hands of Stone, Alan Brown, founder and chair of DNA, and Chris Witherspoon, co-owner and CEO of DNA, will all serve as founders, sharing ownership equally through a stock-for-stock transaction. 

In an interview with Little Black Book, Alan speaks of the “mutual admiration” between Little Hands of Stone and DNA. The planting of the seed for a more official relationship happened in May of 2024. Alan and Chris contacted Matt and Michael to see if they fancied meeting for a drink with the intent of checking in, seeing how things were going and to broach the subject of working together and potentially merging. “At DNA, we’d seen the great work coming out of Little Hands of Stone, and honestly, had been beaten by them a few times in pitches,” says Alan. “We knew we wanted to significantly uplevel our product, and thought that combining forces with LHOS would make sense.” 

Coincidentally, the LHOS team was having great success in landing new business and with their creative reputation, but was struggling to scale its client service and strategy offerings. They saw the opportunity to leverage DNA’s strength in those areas.

“Our overall goal,” adds Matt, “is to leverage our differences to make us stronger – resulting in a new agency that is an agile, national powerhouse producing no-holds-barred creative work that makes an exponential impact.”

Key clients of DNA&STONE, a result of prior relationships with both agencies, include BECU, Rover, Amazon, Purina, Providence, Ziply Fiber, Aegis, and MCU. “Our clients are excited by the news,” says Chris. “In fact, it made such logical sense that on the first day of our announcement, several clients reached out with new projects and work due to the new, combined strengths.”

A music video from the DNA&STONE "to show to the world the kind of ground-breaking, risk-taking, 'hit ‘em in the feels' kind of work" that the agency does

The combining of forces between DNA and LHOS comes amidst a tidal wave of mega mergers among global network agencies and the holding companies that house them in recent years, the most recent being between Omnicom and IPG. Michael believes those kinds of deals happen to reduce costs and increase shareholder prices, and rarely consider how it might positively impact a company’s product, results for clients or the culture for employees. 

“The merger between DNA and LHOS isn’t your typical ‘bigger is better’ play,” adds Michael. “Our goal isn’t to find the cosy middleground between our two agencies. This is about fully embracing our differences and putting them to work for our clients.” 

By coming together, DNA&STONE leadership team believe they can deliver “a rare cocktail of rock-solid client trust and breakthrough creativity at scale” and that they are offering clients something most agencies can’t. “The track record of a legacy,” says Michaal, “the disruptive creativity of an up-and-coming boutique and the empathy of a highly diverse workforce. 

“We’re what our industry needs more of.”