Aussie shop Mistress on a mission to be a part of the ‘Silicon Beach’ revolution in Los Angeles

In between the LIA judging in Vegas last week and New York this week, CB visited LA for the weekend, dropping in to see the guys at Mistress, based in Venice Beach.

Led by Aussie expats Scott Harris and Damien Eley, the playfully named agency, which opened shop in 2010, has been quick to earn the label as an indie darling with a nose for the Los Angeles market.

Sinking its teeth into campaigns for big name brands such as 2K Sports, Jagermeister, Levi’s and Red Bull, Mistress has cleaned up a bucket load of awards, most recently for its work for client Hot Wheels, including a Gold at Clio and The One Show in categories like Content and Innovation in Branded Content.

LA ticked all the right boxes for Harris (top left) and Eley (top right), who both shared ambitions to operate in a growing, progressive market. “We looked at what we wanted to achieve with Mistress: entertainment, activations on a large scale and being surrounded by the latest technology,” says Harris. “Being in the heart of the entertainment world and at Venice Beach (now coined Silicon Beach) gives us access to the best people and companies in the world on a daily basis.”  

Mistress can also offer an enormous amount of international perspective with two Australian partners, two American and a German: Harris, Eley, plus Christian Jacobsen, Jens Stoelken and Blake E. Marquis.

“In the agency itself we also have Latvia, Indonesia, Egypt, Singapore and Japan represented – it’s like the United Nations but we get more done,” quips Harris.

Together, Harris and Eley have collective experience working at agencies in Sydney, New York, London and now LA. “We’ve had the good fortune to see first hand how some of the most successful brands and agencies run their business in different markets and cultures,” says Harris.

The 2011 AdAge ‘Small Agency of The Year’ enlists a project-based model. “Rather than be the agency of record, Mistress brings fresh eyes and thinking to brands that need invigorating,” he says. “We usually work outside of the traditional agency-client relationship and through that lens we’re not burdened by what has or hasn’t been done before for a particular client or problem.”

Mistress launched with an upfront monetary challenge: “Without someone else’s million dollars in your bank account you’ve got to hustle and make every opportunity count,” says Harris.  On top of cash flow, he remembers the main challenges were not unique to being in a foreign market but were more entrepreneurial ones.

Harris didn’t seek out guidance from one person alone and instead over the span of his career, took notes from the best in the business. “We were employees number seven and eight when BMF first started and we got to watch how Warren, Matt and Paul built that agency,” Harris says.

“At Ogilvy New York we saw how a 2,000-person agency is run. At Mother London we learned an enormous amount from Bob Saville and Mark Waites. The guys from The Monkeys have been great to talk to – we keep in touch with all these guys and they always inspire us.”

Mistress

Founding partners: Scott Harris and Damien Eley

Launched: February 2010

Company ownership: Independent

Number of staff: 21 people

mistresscreative.com

> The Hot Wheels transmedia campaign saw Mistress create a global transmedia experience with TV shows, world record stunts and digital story telling, the first aimed at adults in the 43 year history of the brand. Included is a 20-part global online series for Hot Wheels, set at the Secret Hot Wheels Testing Facility and featuring Team Hot Wheels, a real-life team of the world’s best drivers.

> Jägermeister entrusted Mistress with a brand repositioning and its first above-the-line campaign in the US market’s history. The first phase has launched and sees seven men at the top of their game from seven different subcultures form an alpha-male social experiment. The idea of the campaign is to reposition the brand from a party catalyst to a drink to toast strong bonds. The different subcultures allow Mistress to start conversations with many groups of people.

> Mistress did a cover project for the biggest basketball video game in the world for client 2K Sports. The NBA basketball players were on strike due to the lockout and were unavailable to be used anywhere – a big hurdle when the cover is the number one PR tool for gaming companies. Mistress found a section of the game that featured some retired legends of the sport that could appear on the cover, and then invited artists to interpret the gaming experience through these icons.

> An interactive transmedia project for client 2K Sports where Mistress had the best baseball players from the Major League Baseball take on characters from Nicktoons to launch a video game. It saw fathers and sons in America help to pick teams, play the game, and decide who was the best baseball team in the world- the pros or Sponge Bob and his mates.

Pictured second from top on rooftop of the Erwin Hotel on Venice Beach yesterday – clockwise from left: Patsy Peacock (FBI Recruitment), Damien Eley, Aussie expat Ben Nott (Droga5, LA), Ben’s girlfriend Claudia, Scott Harris, Aussie expat Karl Dunn (TBWA\Chiat\Day, LA) and Lynchy (CB)