LA-based creative shop The Many makes ‘humble’ entry into Australia
Award-winning LA-based creative agency The Many is launching in Australia, promising it is not “just another indie creative”. Co-founder Damien Eley, who is spearheading the launch, spoke to Mumbrella to share its philosophy.
The Many, formerly known as Mistress, was founded in 2009 as a “flexible, borderless creative ecosystem”, designed for what Eley coined the “participation generation”. He said it has always strived to be different.
Eley said that Mistress was one of the world’s first project-oriented agencies, which gave it a fresh offering against traditional creative agencies. But as the industry began to catch up with the concept of project-based work, its point of difference began to fade. It rebranded to The Many after acquiring an agency that specialised in analytics and data. The Many then ventured into social media, as Eley believed big brand work through social wasn’t being done at the time.
Eley, an Aussie who spent the past two decades overseas, relocated to Sydney four years ago with the idea of launching right away. But he wanted to find a point of difference.
“When you look at the landscape here, there’s so many great agencies, so many great independent creative shops. I knew I didn’t just want us to be another one of those,” he told Mumbrella.
The Many’s six partners decided to “build an ecosystem” and carve off from just running the agency. It has a modular offering which includes The Many Agency for strategic brand work, The Many Studios for participatory branded content and IP, The Many Labs for AI-driven innovation, The Many Media which manages over AU$100 million in billings, and The Many Brand Partners.
It describes itself as the “participation” agency, believing that true brand relevance isn’t built in isolation, but through the participation of the many.
“It was really important that we had something really, truly different to offer,” Eley said. “Rather than just say ‘hey we’re an independent creative company and we’re coming to do the same stuff everybody else is’, we knew we needed more.”
Damien Eley
He also stressed the important of not recreating LA in Sydney, because there’s a “massive responsibility” to do work that is culturally right for a market.
“Being an Australian who has lived in America for 20 years, I can see that cultural nuances are very important. I was super self-conscious of not having a full Australian team ready right now, and I’ve seen other agencies just transplant their brand from LA to Sydney, and it doesn’t always work.”
Eley did not share specifics on goals for the local office.
“Obviously the goal is to affirm that our participation point of view is appreciated, and continue the growth of the group. But often times you get people chasing whatever client they can get, and be happy with whatever client because growth is growth,” he said.
“But what I’m trying to do here is be very considered with the partners we bring on.”
He described The Many’s entry into Australia as “humble”, adding: “I’m Australian, I know this market, I have massive respect for all the great agencies here. There are clients doing fantastic work right now, so I think if we can make a splash and represent ourselves, and eventually become one of the top players in Australia, that would make us all really happy.”
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Lauren McNamara is the associate editor at Mumbrella, covering the agency beat. She joined in November 2022 as editorial assistant, after completing a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) at UTS.
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