Sofia Colucci, the chief marketing officer of Molson Coors North America, has heard it before. “Sometimes people just assume Mischief is only one type of agency,” she said, nodding to the shop’s buzzy projects, before quickly dispelling that notion. “But they can do a lot.” 

It’s true that Mischief @ No Fixed Address has developed a reputation for viral and stunty work. But the shop—which returns to Ad Age’s A-List for the fifth consecutive year, this time in the No. 2 spot—continues to defy that categorization, delivering mammoth results for clients and largely setting the pace for creative agencies across the industry. 

“It’s easy for people to try and pigeonhole agencies. It becomes a shortcut,” said Greg Hahn, the agency’s chief creative officer, responding to the idea that Mischief sticks to a proven playbook. “But they don’t see the vast breadth because they’re not looking for it.”

Mischief’s depth was front and center at the Super Bowl this year with Molson Coors’ Coors Light, for which it developed a campaign around “a case of the Mondays,” a phrase made popular by the 1999 movie “Office Space.”

Over the course of several weeks, the agency ran outdoor, print and social media ads with an intentional typo—promoting “Mountain cold refershment” instead of “refreshment”—developed a gag product and video teaser and rolled out a national Super Bowl spot. Coors Light and Mischief also helped people recover on the Monday after the Big Game by releasing 12-packs of Coors Light rebranded as Mondays Light. 

The majority of Mischief’s relationships are now lead agency assignments, for which the shop has integrated responsibilities, said Kerry McKibbin, the agency’s president. Simply put, the work runs the gamut.

It’s hard to argue with Mischief’s business results.

The agency has taken Tubi from an obscure streamer to one that now commands more than 97 million monthly viewers. Chili’s, which hired the shop in 2023, closed out its fiscal second quarter ended Dec. 25 with same-store sales up more than 31%, marking three consecutive quarters of double-digit growth. In a recent effort, Mischief took aim at competitors’ high prices, directly calling out the Big Mac and other fast food burgers. 

Still, there are few agencies that can make a PR splash like Mischief. After wrangling the Goldfish creative account away from ad giant Publicis Groupe—without a pitch, of course—the agency temporarily rebranded the cheddar snacks as “Chilean Sea Bass Crackers,” playfully reinforcing that the Campbell’s Co. brand’s crackers aren’t just for kids.

The stunt, which Campbell Snacks’ Senior VP and Chief Marketing Officer Janda Lukin called Goldfish’s “most successful” PR activation to date, was the subject of more than 3,000 media stories.

Scaling at their own pace

Mischief’s creative prowess is an obvious draw for brands, but marketers are increasingly turning to the shop for more. 

The agency last year launched a social studio and a media practice, the latter of which attracted clients including Supercell and Duolingo and accounted for about 10% of total net revenue. It also plans to invest further in content and entertainment services in 2025.

Mischief has taken an instinctive approach to scale management, its partners said. With new capabilities, “it’s either you build it—or acquire it—and they will come,” or “they come and you build it,” said McKibbin. “We’ve leaned a little bit more toward the latter.” 

“There were maybe voices in the very early days of Mischief, more traditional voices in the industry, that were like, ‘They’re only going to get so far doing it this way.’ And I think we heard that year one, and then again year two, and then again year three,” said Kevin Mulroy, an executive creative director at the agency. “It’s getting harder to deny that the way we’re doing it is clearly working.”

Mischief went on a new business tear last year, too, winning 19 brands without a pitch, including creative agency-of-record assignments with Goldfish, JCPenney, Carter’s baby clothing and Tru Fru, in addition to other partnerships with Jameson Whiskey, AG1, 7-Eleven, e.l.f. and U by Kotex. The agency said revenue was up nearly 40%. 

The striking work often causes brands to pick up the phone, but Mischief’s strategic know-how is what convinces marketers to stick around, according to McKibbin. (The agency’s talent and client retention both sit at 97%.)

“We do really creative work that pushes boundaries, but it’s grounded in super solid strategy,” said Jeff McCrory, chief strategy officer. “We’re super attentive to the client’s business, not just running around doing crazy stuff.”

In fact, Mischief’s partners say that traditional advertising efforts, such as the brand-building work for longtime client Tinder, is also becoming a bigger part of their reputation.

“When we’re interviewing creatives, or receive messages from people, they’re calling out, ‘Oh, the campaign that you guys did for Tinder is running here. I really like it,’” said Bianca Guimaraes, executive creative director. “We hear that more than we did before.”

Marketers give Mischief credit for being direct and thoughtful—but also for simply being easy to work with. 

“When you make a decision to go after an agency that’s known for disruptive creative, maybe the thing you’re worried about, on some unconscious level, is that they’re going to chase creativity at all costs and fall in love with their ideas,” said Marisa Thalberg, chief customer and marketing officer at Catalyst Brands, which houses JCPenney. With Mischief, “the great realization, so far, is that they have big ideas and strong opinions, but they’re also listening and collaborating—working with us in a way that’s just been very, very positive.”

Part of the agency’s allure is also how involved the partners remain, even as staff continues to grow. “No matter how big the work gets and how many more projects we give them, I feel really confident that it’s still the same Mischief we signed up with four years ago,” said Colucci.

Turning five 

Ahead of its fifth birthday in June, Mischief has moved into a larger new office in Brooklyn, New York, one that better accommodates its more than 125 employees. The agency could be much larger, but Mischief is extremely judicious when assessing prospective talent.

“One of the biggest changes that I’ve noticed is, the bigger we get, the more we have to train agency traumas out of new people who are coming from places that don’t operate like Mischief,” said Mulroy. “Most people are not used to running quite so fast and quite so efficiently.”

“We often say to new people, ‘It’s like you might have to undergo an advertising lobotomy and forget everything you learned in your past agency,’” added Hahn with a laugh.

Mischief is keenly aware of the slippery slope that can accompany growth—the erosion of culture and talent, client churn and the pressure to sell. But there are still no “for sale” signs in sight, and the agency said it isn’t concerned with the industry’s horror stories, because its mission has stayed the same since day one. 

“We’re not focused on head count, numbers or any of that,” said Hahn. “What we’re focused on is making an impact.”