SmartBug Media® Earns Three New Comparably Awards in the Best Company Culture, Best CEO and Best Company for Women Categories

Leading Intelligent Inbound® Marketing Agency Credits Flexibility, Career Development Opportunities and Fully Remote Workforce as Reasons for the Recognitions         

IRVINE, Calif., December 16, 2021 — SmartBug Media^® — a leading Intelligent Inbound^® marketing agency that assists businesses in generating leads; increasing awareness; and building brand loyalty through inbound marketing, digital strategy, design, marketing automation, revenue operations and public relations — earned three more Comparably awards this quarter, ranking on the Best Company Culture and Best Company for Women lists, with SmartBug^® founder and CEO Ryan Malone ranking on the Best CEOs list. 

These new recognitions bring the company’s total to 26 Comparably awards earned since 2018. It’s the fourth consecutive year Malone has earned a spot on the Best CEOs list, as well as the third year SmartBug has been on the Best Company Culture list and the second year on the Best Company for Women list. In earning these prestigious awards, which are based on employee sentiment, SmartBug^® joins some of the world’s largest companies and most recognizable names such as Google, IBM, Microsoft, Adobe, Netflix, HubSpot, Nextdoor, RingCentral, Zoom Video Communications, Uber, Chipotle and Stanley Black & Decker. 

Comparably awards, particularly those that acknowledge company culture and support for women, have a special significance to Malone, whose lifelong dream was to prove that it is possible to provide employees with challenging careers along with the flexibility to spend more quality time and make lifelong memories with their loved ones. That dream began to take shape when Malone founded SmartBug as one of the world’s few fully remote marketing agencies in 2008. 

“I am always honored when SmartBug receives Comparably awards because they reveal what our employees are thinking and feeling about their jobs and the company they represent,” Malone said. “Earning a spot in the Best Company for Women category brings me such pride because, as a father of two daughters, it's encouraging to see how many talented women have reached the highest levels of management in our company, all the way up to president. The Best Company Culture award also reinforces the core elements of our values — to ensure our employees are happy, healthy and resilient.”

SmartBug’s early remote model has led to sustained growth over the years; the company has grown to more than 130 full-time employees across 42 states and in several countries — even during the global pandemic. Much of that success can be attributed to the fact that company culture, work-life balance and career growth are top priorities at SmartBug. For this reason, SmartBug has always been an attractive employment choice for women who want to strike a healthy balance between their career aspirations and their personal lives. Currently, more than half of the company’s leadership roles are held by women.

There are a number of company policies and initiatives that contribute to SmartBug’s positive company culture. One of these initiatives, Healthy SmartBug, empowers employees from the bottom up to solve real challenges by gathering their feedback on how to make SmartBug healthier. Employees at all levels have produced hundreds of ideas for SmartBug’s leadership team to consider, prioritize and ultimately roll out in order to improve the health of the company. 

SmartBug also invests in its people through programs and initiatives that promote professional development, such as providing quarterly Certification Days, where employees can spend their workday taking online classes and tutorials, learning new skills to enhance the work they produce and further their careers. Malone conceived of Certification Day in 2017, and when HubSpot realized the success that this practice drives for SmartBug on a quarterly basis, it decided to create a version of its own — World Certification Day — which it hosted together with SmartBug last summer. The company will host the second one in early August 2022.

Comparably awards are based on sentiment ratings provided by current employees who anonymously rated their employers on Comparably.com within the past 12 months. Winners were determined based on employee feedback to a combination of workplace culture questions. This set of Comparably Awards was derived from sentiment ratings provided by employees who anonymously rated their employers on Comparably.com during a 12-month period (Nov. 26, 2020 through Nov. 26, 2021) on topics that contribute to overall happiness at work.

“SmartBug is consistently on our Best Places to Work lists which is a testament to its leadership and great company culture of happy, fulfilled employees,” said Comparably CEO Jason Nazar. “Ryan Malone has been an innovative thinker from the start, recognizing long ago the importance of flexibility and remote work. The organization’s emphasis on career development also makes it a great destination for top talent.”

Comparably Awards are compiled from 15 million ratings across 70,000 U.S. companies. There are no fees or costs associated with participating, nor is nomination required. To see the full list of award-winning companies and learn more about the methodology used to determine winners, visit Comparably’s blog.

SmartBug’s recognition by Comparably follows the recent announcements that it was also named to the prestigious Inc. 5000 Fastest-Growing Private Companies in America list for the fifth year in a row and the Adweek Fastest Growing Agencies list for the third consecutive year just this week. 

ABOUT COMPARABLY 

Comparably (www.comparably.com) is a leading workplace culture and compensation monitoring site that provides the most comprehensive and accurate representation of what it’s like to work at companies. Employees can anonymously rate their employers in 20 different workplace culture categories, providing the public a transparent and in-depth look at the experiences workers have based on their gender, ethnicity, age, department, experience, location, education and company size. Since launching in 2016, Comparably has accumulated 15 million ratings across 70,000 U.S. companies. The platform has become one of the fastest-growing SaaS solutions for employer branding and a trusted third-party site for workplace and salary data, including its annual Best Places to Work series.

ABOUT SMARTBUG MEDIA^®

SmartBug Media^® is a globally recognized Intelligent Inbound^® marketing agency assisting businesses in growing revenue by generating leads; increasing brand awareness; and building customer loyalty through content marketing, sales enablement, revenue operations, web development, marketing automation and public relations.

As HubSpot’s 2018 Global Partner of the Year, SmartBug^® is the highest-rated HubSpot partner in the world today. The company has not only been named to the Inc. 5000 Fastest-Growing Private Companies list five years in a row but has also been named to the Adweek Fastest Growing Agencies list three times and won a number of Great Place to Work^® and Comparably awards. With hundreds of awards for client work — and a team holding a combined 1,000-plus marketing certifications — SmartBug is fully dedicated to delivering client success and an unparalleled agency experience. For more information about SmartBug Media, visit smartbugmedia.com.

For SmartBug Media Inquiries, Contact: 

Jennifer Tolkachev, PR Director
SmartBug Media 
949-236-6448 x865
jtolkachev@smartbugmedia.com