The founding of a new advertising agency is one of those events that occurs with such regularity on Madison Avenue that it barely qualifies as news — except, of course, to the people doing the founding, for whom it represents either the culmination of a dream or the beginning of a very expensive education.
Five Cherries is the name of the new shop, started by Grant Gibbs and Ashley Gill, both formerly of Madwell, the independent agency that has made a habit of producing the kind of work that wins awards and, presumably, keeps the lights on. The name evokes slot machines, which may or may not be an intentional commentary on the economics of independent agency life.
Mr. Gibbs and Ms. Gill have styled themselves, with the kind of self-aware branding that is now mandatory for anyone under 40 in the creative industries, as "A Twink and a Redhead." The phrase suggests they have spent time creating content for social platforms, where irony and self-deprecation are the price of admission. (Whether this positioning will translate to procurement meetings at Fortune 500 companies remains, as the lawyers say, an open question.)
The duo reportedly plans to work with brands, including those that may not be entirely familiar with their particular style of content creation. This is a polite way of saying that some clients will hire them precisely because they do not understand what they do, which is how many interesting agency relationships begin.
Madwell, the agency from which they departed, has been part of the growing cohort of independents that have thrived by being small enough to be nimble and distinctive enough to attract clients weary of holding company bureaucracy.
Five Cherries joins an already crowded field of small agencies betting that personality and point of view can substitute for scale. Sometimes they are right.
Original story published in adage.com: "Five Cherries is a new agency from former Madwell executives - Ad Age"