Mischief’s smart, unexpected creative work continues to move the needle for clients

Tubi didn’t have any marquee shows. Tinder was known, disparagingly, as the hookup app. ConnectRN served a community of nurses who were resigning en masse due to burnout, a problem worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic. Each of these brands came to Mischief @ No Fixed Address with what seemed to be a glaring weakness. What the agency did, for each, was turn it into a strength—by marrying strategy and creativity to produce breakthrough, uningorable advertising. See all of Ad Age’s 2024 Agency A-List winners here “Tinder said, ‘People see us as the hookup app. Let’s figure out this problem,’” said Bianca Guimaraes, executive creative director at Mischief. “But it’s very, very hard to change the perception of a massive brand that’s ingrained in culture. So we said, ‘Let’s solve a different problem. Let’s change what a hookup means.’” The result was “It Starts With a Swipe,” the dating app’s new global brand platform. Launched in February 2023, it didn’t run from the idea of “swiping”—the UX that Tinder had invented for browsing through profiles, but which had become synonymous with hookups. Instead, the campaign reframed it. In a raft of colorful ads, Gen Z is still seen swiping—but to find love, not just hookups. Strikingly designed out-of-home and video ads (the latter directed by Los Pérez) showed diverse Gen Zers defining relationships on their terms, with a joyful, fluid inclusivity that’s a hallmark of the younger generation. So intent was Mischief on leaning into Tinder’s perception problem that, early on, it even considered “The Hookup App” as a possible tagline. Greg Hahn, chief creative officer, said Tinder is a good example of how Mischief deeply interrogates business challenges from all angles to find the best way into the creative. “We have a process we’ve coined ‘the Mischief mindset,’” he said. “It’s about asking tons and tons of questions about the brand and its situation to come up with more interesting answers. A lot of times, counterintuitive questions drive your thinking to different directions.” The Tinder campaign was an immediate success: second-quarter revenue rose 6%, there were 10% increases in new users and account reactivations (particularly among Gen Z females) and spikes of 50% in social mentions and 133% in positive sentiment since the work broke. In an August letter to shareholders, the CEO of Tinder’s parent company credited the brand’s gains directly to the advertising. “Just three years in, the agency has become a beacon of gold-standard creative effectiveness, and a case study in how to scale successfully while always being true to who you are,” said Melissa Hobley, global chief marketing officer at Tinder. Tinder is just one example of many from 2023 where Mischief dug into a brand’s problems with fresh eyes and produced work that broke through in culture while also moving the needle for the business. For its impressive body of work over the year, Mischief has been named Ad Age’s 2024 Creative Agency of the Year. (The shop also topped Ad Age’s A-List for 2024—the first time since Droga5 in 2016 that an agency has won both awards in the same year.) Evolving the tone and shape of the work ConnectRN had a problem as seemingly intractable as Tinder’s, with nurses fleeing the profession due to being overworked and underpaid. Mischief, though, zeroed in on a parallel truth: that most of them still had passion for the job. They were leaving not because they wanted to, but because they felt they had to. So, Mischief created the “Unresignation Letter.” Signed by real nurses, the ad—which ran in The New York Times—called on health care leaders to implement changes that would keep more nurses in the profession. The effort helped lead to a 104% increase in connectRN user sessions. The Tinder and connectRN campaigns both featured strategy and creativity in lockstep, a Mischief hallmark from the beginning. But they also show the agency evolving in a few different ways. First, both campaigns went beyond the quirkiness and comedy for which Mischief is still largely known. Indeed, both were very heartfelt—joyful in the case of Tinder, defiant in the case of connectRN. “We’re proud of [connectRN] because it isn’t in-your-face comedy,” Hahn said of the “Unresignation Letter.” “It also turned out to be a really strong movement piece for nurses.” Mischief has crafted a lot of other non-comedic work lately, too—from the “Stand Up to Yourself” PSA for Monica Lewinsky to “Tip for Heinz,” a B2B effort to get more restaurants to serve Heinz Ketchup. Ad Age A-List and Creativity Gala Buy your ticket to the in-person event Click here Along with the tone, Mischief is also expanding the shape of its work. While continuing to excel at buzzy projects that generate earned media (e.g., connectRN), it’s also doing more big brand-platform work for global brands (e.g., Tinder). Hahn finds it ironic when clients who are familiar with Mischief’s buzzy work ask if the agency can do brand platforms. “All of us come from big agencies, where [global brand work] was kind of all we did,” he said. “Back then, clients would ask, ‘Can you do buzzy work?’ It’s almost the opposite conversation we’re having now. But we are getting more opportunities to build brands from the ground up.” The agency emphasizes, though, that it doesn’t make a huge distinction between the two types of work anyway. “Even though we’re expanding our range, all the work still has two elements we want to have in everything, which is that they’re smart and unexpected,” said Kevin Mulroy, executive creative director. “In the beginning, we were known for buzzy, provocative work that gets PR. But we try to infuse any work we do with those same elements that make them sticky.” “If there’s a Mischief style or Mischief solution, it’s this combination of surprise and a feeling of inevitability,” Hahn said. “It’s like, ‘Of course that’s the solution, but I never would have thought of that.’ It seems obvious, but only once you see it.” Work for Chili’s, Outback, eos and Peet’s Coffee This talent for building brand and buzz was evident in Mischief’s 2023 work for other brands, such as Tubi (covered in the A-List story), Chili’s, Outback Steakhouse, eos and Peet’s Coffee. The Chili’s work was quite varied. In May, Mischief moved quickly after a TikTok went viral in which a bride revealed she bought Chili’s takeout for her 99 wedding guests—for just $1,950. Mischief’s response—which went from brief to live activation in three business days—offered catered weddings to the first three couples to propose at a Chili’s. Other Chili’s work included comic ads about how adults deserve Chicken Crispers more than kids do, and a spot with Boyz II Men resurrecting the “I want my baby back, baby back, baby back” jingle. “They do crazy-disruptive work. But not many people realize it’s grounded in incredibly sound strategy,” said George Felix, chief marketing officer at Chili’s. “All they care about is making great work that drives your business—anything that gets in the way of that, they move out of the way.” Jeff McCrory, chief strategy officer at Mischief, said Chili’s is a good example of Mischief helping a brand find its voice across various executions. “Particularly with the rise of social, your voice is incredibly important,” he said. “With Chili’s, there’s a comedic, slightly self-deprecating tone that feels exactly right for that brand. I think, as an agency, we’re very good at helping all kinds of clients find different voices and the right way for them to express themselves.” See all of Ad Age’s 2024 Agency A-List winners here Mischief also helped Outback Steakhouse refine its brand voice in lighthearted campaigns—including one that punctured the self-importance of the chain winning a customer-service award, and another that spoofed Elf on the Shelf with “Koala on the Walla.” Other notable Mischief work in 2023 included the comedic, industry-skewering “Coffee for Coffee People” for new client Peet’s, as well as a host of engaging campaigns for longtime client eos—including “Unmanhandle Your Face,” “Skin So Soft, Even Soft Things Think You’re Soft” and “Second First Kiss.” The latter film, which featured real people who’d shared a first kiss reuniting years later, allowed eos to play with a more heartwarming vibe—versus straight comedy. “I love when real people react to your advertising. With [“Second First Kiss”], all the comments were like, ‘This is the wholesome stuff the world needs right now,’” said Kerry McKibbin, Mischief’s president. All about the idea In looking at Mischief’s year as a whole, what emerges is an agency experimenting on different canvases at different scales—but always following the core idea wherever it takes them, regardless of format, channel or tone. Finding these ideas, hidden deep within a brand’s business problems, and bringing them to life in ways that light up in culture is what continues to motivate the agency’s leaders. “We love partnerships where we get to define the brand. Then we can do TV, or a brand act, or social-first things,” said Guimaraes. “We like delivering all of the above.” “We’ve always been, and always will be, an idea-first agency. It’s the core idea first, and we build around it,” added Mulroy. “When we’re interviewing people, it’s the best compliment Bianca and I can get—when they say, ‘Everything you put out is an idea.’ Having people recognize that is exactly what you want to hear.”

Mischief’s smart, unexpected creative work continues to move the needle for clients

Featured Stories