Sylvia Zakhary on building an agency as a woman of color

Ad Age is marking Black History Month 2023 with our third-annual Honoring Creative Excellence package. (Read the introduction here.) Today, our guest editor Kwame Taylor-Hayford turns the spotlight to Sylvia Zakhary, the founder-CEO of agency/entertainment holding company Mamag Group as well as the founder of nonprofit creative platform Storyhouse Foundation.

“I’ve long admired the work that Sylvia has been doing to bring creativity and culture together in highly crafted projects for artists including Beyoncé and Donald Glover,” says Taylor-Hayford. “Through Mamag and more recently Storyhouse Foundation, she’s created a real sanctuary and community to nurture the next generation of creative talent. Very inspiring!”
 
Here, Zakhary shares her thoughts on building an agency as a woman of color and creating a creative oasis.

When I started Mamag in 2016, there weren’t many women of color running agencies or production companies. There certainly weren’t many agencies dedicated to challenging the status quo and centering stories by creatives of color. 

Although I had amalgamated over a decade of experience, brands simply didn’t have the confidence to bring their business to a new company, run by someone who did not represent “success” in their eyes. I spent the first year battling “no’s” and passive-aggressive rejection. Reaching a fork in the road, I was presented with two options: 1. I could go back to working freelance for companies run by mostly white men, or 2. I could fight my way through the “no’s” and do the “crazy thing” that would allow us to better see ourselves in the world. If you know me, you know I’ll always opt for the “crazy thing.”

For the next eight months, I would pursue all new business incognito as Mamag’s new CEO: a white man named Keith Morris. Keith had a LinkedIn, Facebook and a busy schedule. And just like that, Keith’s comforting identity helped lock in national and global campaigns for major brands in the sports, beauty and luxury lifestyle sectors. What a tremendous case study we had on our hands.

We eventually “retired” Keith, and Mamag continued to grow our portfolio of award-winning work that triumphed in collaborations with artists such as Beyoncé, Donald Glover, Cardi B and Rich Brian, told by creative teams that represented them, and that represented us. In 2019, we were celebrated as the fourth fastest-growing agency in the country—the only WOC-founded agency in the top 10. We finally felt like we were winning.

And then, George Floyd was murdered in 2020 and reality set back in. It was clear that, within our small creative world, despite Mamag’s and our peers’ success in pushing the needle, the larger landscape continues to perpetuate past codes and blind spots, which further steep our existence into “otherness.” These “wins” are not enough. These stories are not enough. I knew Mamag had to evolve into something deeper, into something more meaningful. 

In 2021, we launched Storyhouse, a private member-based platform dedicated to creatives—connecting artists through space, experience and culture to globalize perspectives of storytelling, away from the Western tendency of dividing and separating the marginalized. In one year, we built a community of 5,000 creatives, launched our first 10,000-square-foot Storyhouse in Los Angeles and hosted dozens of cultural events, foreign film screenings and curated dinners. We’ve had the pleasure of hosting the likes of Alicia Keys, Swizz Beatz, Aja Monet, Terrace Martin, Logan Richardson and Saul Williams, and creating space for unique experiences like “Laughing Meditation Session led by Donald Glover.”

For me, it was imperative to have a premium space, outside of our homes, that gave celebrated and emerging artists alike access to art, music, films and books they can see themselves in. A safe destination where modern-day culture-shapers and creatives felt seen; a luxurious oasis where our global cultures are preserved and loved. In a post-pandemic society, this provided brand, media and entertainment leaders a tangible way to drive real-world impact, one city at a time.

From Los Angeles to New York to Nairobi, my goal is to open Storyhouse doors in multiple cities, offering membership and experiences to creatives around the world. I hope partners and creatives alike will continue to join this movement and shift history with us.