Launching The Drum’s Miami Report, a brand new editorial sequence that meets the companies, founders, educators and cultural leaders making Miami probably the most attention-grabbing ingenious town in America presently.
What used to be as soon as a sun-drenched backdrop is now a front-row seat – and regularly the primary degree – for one of the crucial maximum vital conversations in media, tech and promoting.
Miami’s ingenious id is converting rapid. Major companies are scaling right here. Global manufacturers are working cultural experiments. And the skyline – to not point out the advert business – is underneath speedy development.
That’s why The Drum has opened an enduring editorial base in Miami: to be nearer to the power, other folks and concepts reshaping trendy advertising from the 305 outward.
Here’s what we’ve discovered thus far.
Want to move deeper? Ask The Drum
The Top Miami Creative Agencies of 2025
To kick off the sequence, we compiled a brand new roughly listing: The Drum’s Top Miami Creative Agencies of 2025.
It’s now not a rating. It’s a snapshot of town’s ingenious scene – arranged into international award winners, native legends and ones to look at. And, for the primary time, we’ve named a Miami company of the 12 months: Republica Havas.
The company didn’t simply carry out at the international awards degree – it inspired us with its sustained, purpose-driven ingenious management. From campaigns for Café Versailles and Google to paintings tackling kid protection and cultural id, Republica helps outline what Miami creativity looks as if as of late.
Explore the whole Top Agencies listing.
Keith Carswell: “Miami’s not just emerging – it’s exploding”
If you need to know Miami’s momentum, simply glance up. “We’ve got more cranes in the air than any other city in the country,” says Keith Carswell, director of financial innovation and construction for the City of Miami.
That bodily expansion mirrors what’s going down creatively. Citadel is development a brand new HQ, Inter Miami is making an investment in a $1bn stadium and town itself is creating a virtual dual – a real-time, AI-driven reproduction that permits for smarter making plans and quicker infrastructure rollouts.
“There’s an energy here that’s just different,” says Carswell. “Miami has gone from being a tourist destination to an economic engine.”
Read the whole interview with Keith Carswell.
Inside Republica Havas: From rejection letter to ingenious powerhouse
The tale of Republica Havas starts now not with a pitch, however with a rejection – a letter from Madison Avenue despatched to co-founder Jorge Plasencia’s father in 1968. Today, that letter hangs in Republica’s HQ, simply steps from the place the company leads campaigns for Toyota, Royal Caribbean and extra.
From its origins in Cuban exile tradition to its standing as of late as a globally ranked company, Republica has change into the ingenious soul of Miami. Its secret? Not simply aim however precision.
Explore how Republica was Miami’s top-ranked company.
Gut feeling: How the indie company scaled with out promoting out
Gut, based through Anselmo Ramos and Gastón Bigio, used to be as soon as adland’s maximum talked-about startup. Two years after being got through Globant, it nonetheless looks like Gut – rapid, flat, bizarre, and relentlessly courageous.
From launching ‘Tax-Free Bagels’ for Kraft to making vibrators-in-roses bundles for DoorDash, Gut’s Miami place of job has change into an international springboard. Its secret? Creative possibility married to manufacturing velocity – and a refusal to decelerate.
Step inside of Gut’s new neon HQ.
David Miami: Slack funerals, Google briefs and Latin soul
David Miami is understood for giant concepts – and an similarly large humorousness. On the day we visited, they had been actually retaining a funeral for Slack. But past the mischief is critical ingenious weight: from ‘Moldy Whopper’ to ‘iPager,’ David has helped redefine what a culturally related international company looks as if.
With a lean, ego-free construction and a Latin-rooted control taste, the company continues to punch above its weight and affect some distance past Wynwood.
Read about our talk over with to David Miami.
Miami Ad School: “We’re not the Ivy League – we’re the punk rock school”
If the business is evolving, so must training. That’s the view of Rebecca Rovirosa, the brand new government director of Miami Ad School. In her first 90 days, she’s introduced an AI bootcamp, scrapped conventional silos and rebuilt the curriculum to replicate the brand new ingenious fact.
“I want students to stop asking for permission and just start building,” she says.
With new business partnerships, uncooked manufacturing briefs, and an perspective nearer to DIY than MBA, Miami Ad School is popping itself right into a launchpad for the following technology.
Go within the reboot of Miami Ad School.
Distinction: Sport, tradition and creators in a single playbook
Athletes aren’t simply athletes any further – they’re influencers, logo founders and content material engines. Distinction, the company based through Alexander Onaindia, is tapping into that shift, serving to manufacturers similar to Meta and Netflix turn on round occasions together with the Super Bowl, F1 Miami and the World Cup.
“It’s no longer about goals scored, it’s about values, stories and visibility,” says Onaindia.
Operating with a lean workforce and a allotted style, Distinction is evidence that Miami’s sports activities tradition is ingenious trade ready to occur.
Read our function on Distinction.
What’s subsequent?
The Drum’s Miami Report will proceed to chart the evolution of this ingenious hotspot, from established avid gamers to new-school stores similar to SoStereo, Lemon Yellow and VaynerMedia Miami.
It’s now not near to monitoring hype. It’s about working out the stipulations, other folks and mindsets which can be making Miami some of the thrilling towns in international advertising as of late.
Welcome to Miami. Not a backdrop. A proving flooring.