Ex-GS&P creative directors launch agency with former Barbarian managing director

Suarez and Gonzalez led the reopened Goodby Silverstein & Partners New York in 2020 before departing in May. (GS&P's first New York outpost closed in 2015.)

As executive creative directors there, Suarez and Gonzalez handled creative for brands such as Comcast and Liberty Mutual and were behind the creation of Liberty Mutual's recurring characters, LiMu Emu and Doug. While working in GS&P's San Francisco headquarters, the duo was also part of the insurer's “Only Pay for What You Need” ads in 2018 that brought more quirkiness and absurdity to the brand’s marketing.

Related: GS&P NY executive creative directors depart

The pair went on to lead several notable campaigns for the insurance brand, including the recent “Something to Help You Remember” campaign.

Suarez said their experience at Barton and helping relaunch Goodby’s New York office, along with seeing friends launch successful agencies such as Mischief @ No Fixed Address (Greg Hahn) and Erich & Kallman (Steve Erich and Eric Kallman), gave them the “real-world schooling” needed to take this leap.

“We took a couple of calls [to work at agencies] and they were very intriguing calls, but the more we thought about doing our own thing and doing things the way we wanted to, the more we felt like there was an opportunity and that we were kind of uniquely positioned to do that,” Suarez said.

The two were introduced to Berry through a mutual friend while they were searching for someone with account experience to help round out the team. 

“It's really tempting to go to your immediate circle,” Gonzalez said about the decision to fill the president position. “One of the things that Courtney brought to the table that we were really excited about was her experience over at Barbarian Group. I think we all came up in the traditional spaces … but to have her last experience be running a place that's digital-first and is pushing the edge of technology made us feel confident that we're able to diversify our offering right off the bat.”

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During her time at Barbarian, Berry helped build the agency’s social media management capability and her latest focus was on building the agency’s in-house creator offering.

Launching an agency “hadn't been something that was a part of my plans just because I think as an account person, that can be a really tricky thing to do without the creative side of the equation,” Berry said.

“I love the way that David and Danny approached creativity. Even though it wasn't really a part of my grand scheme and plans overall, I think those moments in your life when you have those feelings of this all make sense … it just felt like the right time to take a bet on myself along with these two.”

First clients

Inaugural clients include New York Times-owned sports journalism brand The Athletic, the XFL and Show-Me Organics, a patient-focused cannabis company. The agency’s first work will be for The Athletic, which became a client after Bandits & Friends pitched for a project a few weeks ago.

The campaign, which is set to launch at the end of the month, will be focused on how The Athletic can help those who play fantasy football stay informed as they prep for fantasy drafts. The campaign will include social assets, an interactive billboard in Times Square and more, Gonzalez said.

“Bandits & Friends came out of nowhere and just crushed it. Smart, witty work across multiple channels on a fast timeline,” said Amanda Ephrom, brand strategist at The Athletic, in a statement.

For Show-Me Organics, the agency will launch work surrounding opioid awareness. One goal is to “gain legitimacy” for cannabis to be used as an alternative to opioids for medicinal purposes.

Moving forward, the agency will look to hire freelancers on an as-needed basis to help work on accounts.

Tough economy as an advantage

The idea to start an agency came during a time when Gonzalez said the “price of entry has lowered” for shops to do work with big clients.

“So many big clients go into more of a roster, or more of a project-based model. You don't have to be a huge agency that can handle an AOR relationship to get really visible work for household names,” he said.

Berry, who ran Barbarian’s new business department, said the beginning of the year was tough for larger agencies and that she has increasingly seen clients seek out smaller agencies. The tough economy has become an “advantage” for small agencies, Gonzalez added.

“When things are a little more challenging, marketers are forced to look past the usual suspects, and we plan on being very unusual,” Gonzalez said. “So on top of that, when they need to get more bang for the buck and when they don't have really the money for agency bloat or boilerplate work, it's a really great time to be small and smart.”

'Steal attention'

There has certainly has been a bumper crop of small agencies coming onto the scene recently. Just last week, veteran advertising creative Noel Cottrell launched his own agency Murder Hornet. Some strong small shops that have popped up over the past couple of years include Mojo Supermarket, Slap Global, Supernatural, Orchard, Atlantic, Movers+Shakers, Majority and, perhaps most notably, Mischief @ No Fixed Address.

“We've already felt the support from the other small agencies within our network who have already heard about us getting this off the ground and we couldn't have done some of the things that we've already done without their help. And we'll continue to make sure that we are doing right by that,” Berry said.

The mission of the agency is built around helping clients “steal attention,” according to Gonzalez, who said he’s excited to offer the creative duo’s services at a “discounted rate” without the layers of a larger agency.

“One of the things that we feel gets overlooked a lot when [the industry] talks about attention is the understanding that if you're writing a TV spot, expect that your real audience—not the testing room audience and not the award show panel audience—they're on their phone, they're doing things with their kids, they're making dinner,” said Gonzalez.

So if you're writing to that audience, you're going to write slightly differently. And I think it's not just about being louder than everybody else, but it's about creating storylines and jokes and entertainment that's simple and groundbreaking and interesting and something they'll think about when your spot is over with.”

That mission statement plays into the agency’s name, which is meant to grab attention but also emphasize the agency’s working style.

“We wanted to go out and let people know what we're about within our name. I think that's probably a trend that a lot of people have done more recently, like the Mischiefs and Guts of the world,” said Suarez. “Danny and I have always seen our jobs as stealing people's attention ... so we thought Bandits was the right way to go about that, and it feels kind of fun.

“The other side of the equation is the friends part, and we wanted to stress the way we work with clients and so much so that we put it in the name,” he added. “Friends are honest with each other, friends don't waste friends' money, friends can have those tough conversations when they need to.”