Busy creative boutique Mischief @ No Fixed Address has entered the media planning and buying space.
The agency exclusively revealed to ADWEEK that it has quietly built a media department over the past year, led by executive media director Kristie Lee.
The group has around 15 people and works with brands such as Duolingo, Supercell and Peet’s Coffee. Roles within the team span communications planning, strategy, procurement, analytics and measurement.
By 2024, media planning and buying services accounted for approximately 10% of Mischief’s total net revenue. The agency declined to share its revenue goals for 2025 or the amount of media it handles in billing.
“Media and creative work go hand in hand. I think separating them years ago was a mistake, and the industry suffered because of it,” said Greg Hahn, co-founder and creative director at Mischief @ No Fixed Address.
Mischief offers comprehensive media capabilities across traditional and digital channels. While clients like Peet’s benefit from its integrated media and creative offering, others, like Supercell and Duolingo, are standalone media clients.
“We’ve worked in places that tout integration and tailored solutions. But the reality I know many clients have experienced is that of a couple of forced IATs [integrated agency team] meetings,” said Kerry McKibbin, partner and president of Mischief @ No Fixed Address.
Mischief’s creative and media teams are integrated from the start, receiving a common brief and working together on research and ideas to arrive at a cohesive plan. “Being present when creatives are thinking and being able to respond to it as a media specialist allows for stronger communications plans and media plans that all work together,” Lee said.
For Peet’s, for example, the media and creative teams worked in tandem to launch a “disloyalty” program, which allowed it to build loyalty among members of other coffee chains through clever media placements.
“The integration of media and creative has allowed us to evolve at speeds and scale we never knew were possible,” said Jessica Buttimer, vice president of brand and direct marketing at Peet’s, in a press release.
Although Mischief’s media team has opposed holding companies, its strength is working with small and mid-sized clients who don’t always get the attention they need from big box stores , McKibbin said.
“In a larger storage company, a certain size of customers can get lost…or feel like they’re frothing, rinsing, repeating plans,” she said. “We have access to the same tools and platforms as the big groups, but we are not in an arms race in terms of proprietary tools for which the customer ends up footing the bill. We strive to give our customers everything they need and nothing they don’t, and for these small and medium sized customers, this is exactly the ideal solution.
Mischief’s media engagement
With its media offering, Mischief is also capitalize on an erosion of trust which has plagued media agencies and their clients.
The formal offering is launched with a commitment to be completely impartial, to prioritize effectiveness over efficiency and to provide true integration to clients through “one brief, one P&L, one solution “.
“I don’t think I’m saying anything new when I point out the controversy and lack of trust created by things like principled purchasing and supplier kickbacks,” McKibbin said. “At this particular moment, there is a big conversation around the urgent need for a practice that does things differently.”
Lee added that Mischief does not make principal-based purchases, but if a customer wants to benefit from such a solution, it can facilitate a partnership with a third-party barter entity.
“We’re not big enough and, honestly, that goes against what we stand for,” she said. “We want to be completely impartial in what we recommend. Our first and foremost focus is on the customer and recommending solutions that we truly believe will work, rather than taking the media out of our hands.
McKibbin added that Mischief always discloses “where and how we buy, and we avoid the murky middle of hidden markups, which means we’re truly able to be completely transparent in our fees.”
Here is Mischief’s commitment:
We create work that makes waves because we believe the riskiest thing a brand can do is be ignored. As your media partner, we are committed to achieving the unignorable by keeping the following principles in mind.
Impartial. Always. No personal interest. No unloading of stocks. No partisan partnerships. No side offers or bribes. No race to the bottom. Effectiveness rather than efficiency. Are impressions the main KPI or sales? Efficiency yes, but only if it makes things happen: business results above all. (True) Integration. The bringing together of media and creation is a story as old as the industry, but it is precisely a story. It’s a creative and media love song: A brief, a P&L, a solution.
Only what you need, nothing extra. Segmentation, data and purchasing platforms: yes, of course. But no to technology upselling. No to useless tourists in meetings. No to BS: because we’re not in an arms race for tools for which customers ultimately foot the bill.
