# Translation

> Translation is an independent, Black-owned creative agency in Brooklyn, founded in 2004 by music executive Steve Stoute on a simple wager: brands that lead culture outrun brands that follow it. It builds cultural strategy, creative, and talent-brokered campaigns for the NBA, State Farm, Beats by Dre, Nike and other Fortune 500 clients, and shares a founder, a CMO, and a cultural-insight engine with the artist platform UnitedMasters.

- **Founded:** 2004
- **Headquarters:** Brooklyn, New York, United States
- **Founders:** Steve Stoute (Founder & CEO)
- **Team size:** Roughly 350-940 employees across the combined Translation + UnitedMasters organization (sources vary widely); offices in Brooklyn, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
- **Products:** Cultural strategy & brand strategy, Creative development & integrated production, Brand soundtracking & talent brokerage, Sponsorship & experiential activation, Pulse of Culture
- **Notable:** Named creative agency of record for the NBA (2014) and behind its most recognized recent campaigns, Ranked No. 7 on Ad Age's 2024 Agency A-List; featured on Ad Age Best Agencies lists in 2022, 2023 and 2024, Five consecutive Sports Emmy nominations for NBA campaign work

## Products & services

- **Cultural strategy & brand strategy** — Context planning and strategy that identifies emerging cultural signals and translates them into brand positioning for major advertisers.
- **Creative development & integrated production** — End-to-end concepting, creative and production of advertising campaigns across film, social, experiential and design.
- **Brand soundtracking & talent brokerage** — Matching brands with artists, athletes and cultural figures for campaigns, sponsorships and original music - a specialty rooted in Stoute's music-industry background.
- **Sponsorship & experiential activation** — Design and production of live events, sponsorship platforms and experiential marketing built around cultural moments.
- **Pulse of Culture** — Translation's cultural-insights brand and report property that tracks what audiences and communities care about, informing both its own work and client strategy.
- **UnitedMasters** — Sister company and independent-artist distribution platform founded by Stoute; gives Translation direct access to a marketplace of independent creators for brand partnerships.

## Achievements

- Named creative agency of record for the NBA (2014) and behind its most recognized recent campaigns
- Ranked No. 7 on Ad Age's 2024 Agency A-List; featured on Ad Age Best Agencies lists in 2022, 2023 and 2024
- Five consecutive Sports Emmy nominations for NBA campaign work
- Beats by Dre 'You Love Me' (2020) earned an Emmy nomination
- Founder Steve Stoute named Ad Age Executive of the Year (2013) and Variety Music Mogul of the Year (2025)
- Built and spun up UnitedMasters, an independent-artist platform backed by Apple, Alphabet and Andreessen Horowitz

## Latest updates

- **2025-06** — NBA Finals campaign 'Unforgettable Awaits' (with Kevin Costner and Mindy Kaling) earns Translation its fifth straight Sports Emmy nomination.
- **2025-01** — Steve Stoute named Variety's Music Mogul of the Year for his work across Translation and UnitedMasters.
- **2024-01** — Translation ranked No. 7 on Ad Age's 2024 Agency A-List.
- **2023-01** — Sister company UnitedMasters raises a $50M Series C led by Andreessen Horowitz at roughly a $550M valuation.

## Links

- Website: https://translationllc.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/translation-llc
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/PulseofCulture
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wearetranslation/
- TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@wearetranslation

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/translation
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-08-14