Best Creative Agencies in Nashville (2026)

Introduction

Nashville has a compact, mostly independent creative agency scene, and the eight agencies below are the strongest of it in 2026. They were chosen for recent work, 2025 and 2026 recognition, and the quality of their client rosters.

The city’s clients shape the work. Healthcare, music, hospitality and consumer brands based in Middle Tennessee keep local agencies busy, and several shops here now run national accounts from Nashville. The past year brought real change. BUNTIN merged with Bastion, Australasia’s largest independent agency, in August 2026 to form BastionBUNTIN. Bohan rebranded as Artists & Outlaws. THE MAYOR, launched in 2022, was named Adweek’s fastest growing agency of 2026.

Every agency here has an active Nashville office in 2026. The list runs in no fixed order of merit, since the right choice depends on your brief, budget and how you like to work.

The best creative agencies in Nashville

1. BastionBUNTIN

Independent · Nashville · bastionbuntin.com

BUNTIN has been one of Nashville’s best-known agencies for decades, and in August 2026 it merged with Bastion USA to form BastionBUNTIN, part of an independent group led by Bastion, Australasia’s largest independent full-service agency. Jeffrey Buntin Jr. is co-chairman. Steve Chavez joined as chief creative officer in 2024. The agency was the most awarded shop at the 2025 Nashville ADDYs, with 12 Golds and the Digital Best of Show for SERVPRO “Dismantle”.

Current clients include SERVPRO, the CFP Board, Trex and the Tennessee Education Lottery. The combined business lists offices in Nashville, New York and Los Angeles, so ask which team will run your account after the merger.

2. THE MAYOR

Independent · Nashville · themayor.com

THE MAYOR is a small independent shop founded by chief creative officer Tom Hamling in 2022. Adweek ranked it the number one fastest growing agency of 2026, out of 72 agencies worldwide, and it took Gold for the Southeast region in Ad Age’s 2025 Small Agency of the Year Awards. The team numbers around 13 people.

Its work is mostly broadcast and social comedy for national brands. Consumer Cellular campaigns have featured Ted Danson and Fred Couples, and the agency also works with Famous Footwear, Carl’s Jr. and Super Star Car Wash, which named it agency of record in August 2025. Locally it works with Maple Street Biscuit Co. and Vanderbilt University.

3. GS&F

Employee-owned · The Gulch · gsandf.com

GS&F is an employee-owned agency, structured as an ESOP, with more than four decades of history in Nashville. CEO Gregg Boling leads it from Cummins Station. At the 2025 Nashville ADDYs it won several Golds and the Mosaic Award for “What Is Family?”, a campaign about modern family life.

The client list leans towards sport and manufacturing: Bridgestone and Firestone, the Tennessee Titans, the Nashville Predators, A.O. Smith, Lochinvar and Delta Dental. Its “This Is Bridgestone’s House” work for the NFL shows how it handles sponsorship campaigns.

4. Artists & Outlaws

Formerly Bohan · Nashville · artistsandoutlaws.com

Artists & Outlaws is the new name for Bohan, one of Nashville’s longest-running agencies. It works from the former Bohan address on Kline Avenue, led by CEO Shari Day and chief creative officer Jon Krevolin. The agency covers strategy, branding and design, creative, digital and social, content and production, and media, with an in-house PR lead.

Clients include Dollar General, Dollywood, BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, Ascension Saint Thomas, the Frist Art Museum, WeGo Public Transit and Pigeon Forge. That mix of retail, tourism and healthcare is typical of what Middle Tennessee brands need.

5. redpepper

Founder-led · Nashville · redpepper.land

redpepper is a Nashville agency founded and run by CEO Tim McMullen, with a strong creative technology streak. Its team includes a creative technologist, and its experiments, such as a robot that solves “Where’s Waldo?” and an AI game that asks whether a dog is real, have been covered by Fast Company, Mashable and HuffPost.

The agency created Slack’s first big ad campaign, and its case studies include integrated work for Slack and Varonis and branding for CESAR. Each year it runs CreateAthon, a day and night of donated creative work for local nonprofits.

6. FoxFuel Creative

Independent · Nashville · foxfuelcreative.com

FoxFuel Creative is an independent Nashville agency, founded about twelve years ago, that combines creative, branding and digital work. It runs its own video series, “In the Room”, and is a member of the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce and EO Nashville.

Named work includes projects for the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, Fiesta Grande Chip Co., Covenant Health, Availity and Middle Tennessee Electric. Its healthcare experience is useful in a city with so many health systems and health-tech firms.

7. iostudio

Independent, veteran- and women-owned · Hillsboro Village · iostudio.com

iostudio is a brand and marketing communications agency with around 25 years of work behind it, certified as a service-disabled veteran-owned and women-owned small business. Its five practices are strategy, design, video, digital and engagement. It picked up a Silver and three local awards at the 2025 Nashville ADDYs.

Government and military work is its specialty, led by integrated recruitment campaigns for the U.S. Army National Guard. Other clients include UPS, McKesson, HarperCollins and Second Harvest Food Bank. In 2025 it joined Yes& Federal in the SBA Mentor-Protégé Program to expand its federal marketing capabilities.

8. Pyxl

Founder-owned · The Gulch · pyxl.com

Pyxl is an independent agency founded in Nashville in 2008 by Brian Winter, who now runs it as co-CEO with Bonnie Winter. It works across brand, creative and technology for B2B and e-commerce clients, and has a second studio in Charleston. In 2025 it acquired Cobble Hill and HOOK, a past Ad Age Small Agency of the Year winner.

Clients include IBM, Medtronic, the U.S. Air Force Academy, Regal Cinemas and Celero Commerce. It suits brands that need the creative and the digital build handled by one team.

What to look for in a Nashville creative agency

Start with what kind of client you are. Many Nashville agencies grew up serving healthcare, tourism, sport and consumer brands in the region, and the strongest of them now run national accounts too. An agency with a portfolio in your sector will need less time to get up to speed, though a fresh perspective from outside the category can also help.

Check who will work on your account. The 2026 merger that created BastionBUNTIN and the Bohan rebrand both changed teams and structures, and smaller shops often depend on a few senior people. Ask to meet the people who will do the work and how many other accounts they handle.

Be clear about scope. Several agencies here offer media buying, PR and production in-house, while others focus on ideas and creative and bring in partners. Either model can work. Agree what is included, how fees are set and how success will be measured before the first brief.

Finally, look at how the agency runs reviews and approvals. Campaigns for Nashville clients often involve hospital systems, tourism boards or several brand owners, with many people signing off. Agencies with one clear place for the latest files and feedback make those rounds faster and leave fewer gaps between versions.

How Fabric helps creative agency teams

Fabric gives an agency one workspace for its files, client feedback and team knowledge, with AI search across all of it. The agency setup fits a shop running several accounts at once: one space per client, with briefs, assets, decks and call notes kept together.

Production files sit in Fabric’s cloud drive, which streams files on demand so they take no local disk space, and heavy files open without a full download. Search works by meaning across documents, images and transcribed recordings, and colour search finds visual assets by shade. When a team is looking for a past campaign as a reference, similar search surfaces related work without a typed query.

For client delivery, any file or folder can be published as a web page and shared with password protection. Link analytics shows when each named recipient opened a link and how long they spent with it, which helps with pitch decks and review rounds. Clients can leave threaded comments through a shared link without creating an account. Commenters can also leave timestamped comments on video and draw on any video frame. There is more on this approach in why agencies stop sending Google Drive links to clients.

On Team plans, self-writing docs can maintain a page for each client from meetings, Slack and the workspace itself, covering decisions, deliverables and open items. New account staff get the history without asking around.

Password protection and link analytics are included on Pro and Team plans, and self-writing docs on Team plans. See plans for teams.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best creative agency in Nashville?

There is no single answer, as the right agency depends on the brief. On recent recognition, BUNTIN (now BastionBUNTIN) won the most awards at the 2025 Nashville ADDYs, and THE MAYOR was named Adweek’s fastest growing agency of 2026.

What happened to BUNTIN?

BUNTIN merged with Bastion USA in August 2026 to form BastionBUNTIN, joining Bastion, Australasia’s largest independent full-service agency. The combined agency still lists Nashville among its US offices.

What happened to Bohan?

Bohan now operates as Artists & Outlaws, from the same Nashville address. Its client list includes Dollar General, Dollywood and BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee.

Are Nashville creative agencies independent?

Most of the agencies on this list are independent. GS&F is employee-owned through an ESOP, Pyxl and redpepper are run by their founders, and iostudio is a certified veteran- and women-owned business. For network offices in the city, see the best advertising agencies in Nashville.

How much does a Nashville creative agency cost?

Fees vary with scope and agency size. Most agencies work on monthly retainers or project fees, and smaller shops are usually less expensive than national agencies. Ask for a scoped estimate that lists what is included, such as production, media and revisions.

Related lists

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