Today we’d like to introduce you to Mitch Bennett.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I’m one of the weird people who knew I wanted to be in advertising since I was a little kid. I wanted to make what was on everyone’s TVs, and I wanted to not waste that chance by doing boring stuff.
I went to UNC-Chapel Hill for Journalism, then Creative Circus in Atlanta for advertising copywriting.
After working in big ad agencies like BBDO New York, McKinney in Durham NC, Crispin Porter + Bogusky in Boulder, GSD&M in Austin and Fitzco//McCann in Atlanta, I decided to start a new kind of creative ad agency with my long-time partner Wes Whitener.
Our goal is to make advertising fun and simple, The kind of advertising people don’t hate, made with big brands who want a simpler way to come up with ideas and produce them.
I moved to Chapel Hill because part of our model is to be able to work with anyone from anywhere. And the Triangle is objectively the best place in the world.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The hardest part has been learning how to let go of the trappings of ad agencies that no longer make sense.
We got rid of the layers of people slowing down the process of getting great lovable ad campaigns out there.
We got rid of the big showcase buildings and fancy stuff that means every idea has to cost enough to cover the rent.
We got rid of the barriers between us and the people who work at the brand. Together, we’re quite a team.
We got rid of the part where agencies hand their ideas off to Hollywood directors who don’t care as much as we do, to shoot the work. Now we shoot it ourselves.
And in a world where ad agencies are crumbling, we’ve found a way to use a small core team, and hire the very best talent for each project, rather than stamping the exact same team on every project no matter the business problem, brief, or budget.
The struggles along the way were watching our work get watered down and mangled by complicated processes and downright silliness.
As you know, we’re big fans of Guesthouse. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
welcometoguesthouse.com
We’re a new kind of non-agency agency that works nimbly with brand teams to get to big ideas quickly. From strategy to concept to production, we do it all with no handoffs.
We work with brands like Every Man Jack, Magic Spoon Cereal, RTP-based SAS, Flexcar, Recess, Citizens Trust Bank, and GreyStone Power to do fun things people enjoy.
We offer marketing and creative strategy, brand and campaign platforms, creative ideas for all media from modern digital and social to TV, radio, and out of home. We also produce the work ourselves.
We also offer creative training for companies, as well as one-on-one training for in-house creatives.
Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
So many people, but the main one are the people who supported us as we started. Diedra St. Julien at Citizens Trust Bank for giving us our first project as Guesthouse. Brian Berklich at Hillsborough-based soccer.com for bringing us in early. Kristina Macintosh who was at Magic Spoon and believed in us early.
And Jeff Quick who advised us from the start, and joined as Head of Growth as soon as we could bring him in.
But my wife Jill, who teaches 7th grade language arts at McDougal in Chapel Hill, has supported me through my whole insane advertising career, and believed in us starting this company well before we were sure we could pull it off. She’s the best.
Pricing:
- We have ways to make most advertising budgets work, and are great at concepting to the budget.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://welcometoguesthouse.com
- Instagram: @welcometoguesthouse
- LinkedIn: welcometoguesthouse
