Advertising Age

Advertising Age, a self-explanatory trade journal, decided to give the small-timers some love with its inaugural Small Agency of the Year award.

And the winner is - drumroll, please - Rockfish Interactive of Rogers.

Ad Age limited the pool to agencies with fewer than 75 employees. The journal's editorial board selected the winner.

In the Editor's Note, the trade publication wrote that even in the first year, the list "has served its primary purpose: to help Ad Age uncover some of the great but not enormous agencies that too rarely get recognition, and to celebrate some of their best work, which rarely seems to make it through the big awards-show machinery."

Rockfish has its own live-well of big catches, including clients such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Sam's Club, J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc., Tyson Foods Inc. and Arvest Bank Group.

The masterminds at Rockfish also develop other companies and the technologies that support them. The company owns and operates Silver Joe's, a coffee company; Fourthbook.com, a Web-based, church-management software; and MindofMoms.com, a social media forum that connects mom bloggers and other companies, among others.

"Because Rockfish launches our own ventures and companies, we face the same marketing decisions our clients do, like which investments achieve the most effective marketing solutions and digital strategies," founder and CEO Kenny Tomlin said in a news release. "What clients ask us to do for them, we do for ourselves as well. As a company we put our money where our mouth is."