Is the Charlotte ad agency with the most growth potential the one you don’t know?

The other week, a marketing friend of mine asked me, “Hey Ted, do you know about the 20-person ad shop up the street that’s killing it in the soccer world?” My response, “What?”

I had never heard of AC&M.

Now I have.

My reaction: How can I invest?

AC&M is a 22-person (including a few interns) ad agency that specializes in Hispanic marketing, soccer marketing and social media marketing. Their client list includes names like: Family Dollar, Sherwin Williams, Dewalt, Soccer.com, World Soccer Shop, New Balance, NBC Universo, National Gypsum.

I had the chance to talk with their senior leaders (Jaime Cardenas, Pacino Mancillas and Vicente Navarro) for about 15 minutes and I walked away super impressed. It was obvious – these guys know Hispanic and soccer marketing, cold. They live it. They’re on the cutting edge. They know everybody in the soccer world. Unreal.

Jaime started the agency in Wake Forest’s Incubator while attending school there (I love N.C. entrepreneurship stories).

As Ignacio “Nacho” Cassinelli was giving me a tour of the office, another thing that jumped out at me – nobody looked like me (a nerdy, white dude). Employee nationalities include: Mexico, Colombia, Guatemala, Uruguay, Ecuador, Brazil, Spain, Puerto Rico and the USA. Love it.

Okay, enough words, here’s a tour of AC&M’s headquarters.