When you work in advertising, the place you work matters a lot — the actual physical place and the culture and environment that comes along with it — because let’s face it, you probably spend more hours at your agency than you do at home.
That’s why we started our agency tour series “Inside the Agency,” which takes a look at agency offices and how those spaces reflect the culture. Beyond the usual expected agency office perks like ping pong tables and free-flowing beer (yes, that’s part of it), “Inside the Agency” is meant to take a look at how agencies create and maintain their particular brands of creative office culture, by, for example, encouraging group activities and side projects, and collaboratively designing spaces. Check out five of our favorite agency tours from the “Inside the Agency” series:
MRY
MRY, the agency formerly known as Mr. Youth, isn’t a small agency anymore since its merger with LBi. The challenge with the agency’s space at 11 W. 19 Street was merging the two different agency cultures. Things like open floor plans and seating arrangements that mix LBi’ers with MRY’ers, along with things like an in-house coffee shop and weekly beer sing-alongs have helped create an open, cohesive and fun environment. 
Click here to see the full tour.
The Barbarian Group The Barbarian Group started out as a production company with the goal of making cool stuff for the Web — and even though it has grown into a full-fledged digital agency, it tries to keep that mission statement in mind and make it part of the agency culture. Check out The Barbarian Group’s cool space that includes tons of art, standing desks and a roof space where yoga and fitness classes take place. 
Click here to see the full tour.
Iris Worldwide
British-born agency Iris has a flagship U.S. office in New York’s downtown Noho area. Iris gets everyone involved in creating the right work environment by asking for feedback about what they want and empowering staffers to decorate conference rooms and organize nights out together or in-office massage sessions. 
Click here to see the full tour.
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Huge
Huge’s Brooklyn office is part of the growing creative digital scene in Dumbo that it helped create. The digital agency is Dumbo’s largest employer, and though its office space is big — it spans several floors — the agency has made an effort to create open, comfortable spaces for people to hang out in, like the large open kitchen, which is stocked with snacks for staffers. Huge also hosts lots of in-house events in these common spaces, including things like guest speakers and panel discussions about digital media topics. 
Click here to see the full tour.
Big Spaceship
Like Huge, digital agency Big Spaceship calls Dumbo home — it’s even in the same building as Huge. Big Spaceship’s open space is organized by project teams. Each team sits together and comes up with its own name and logo. The agency also makes it a point to do fun things together so that the people don’t burn out, whether its a game of foosball, a videogame tournament or a weekend ski trip. 
Click here to see the full tour.
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