Stepchild is an advertising strategy cooperative composed solely of senior partners with the highest pedigree. We’ve been quietly behind the scenes for decades.
We work the briefs that matter, for brands, founders, and agencies that want the strategy that surprises and works right the first time.
A senior team, a combined century of award-winning ads between us, and a deep bench of specialists you can actually meet.
Practices
What do you need?
Four practices, one cooperative, and endless outcomes. Pick the closest one, and we’ll meet you where the work is.
What we don’t do
A short list of the work we’ll politely decline.
Every agency’s capabilities deck looks the same. What you don’t do is more telling than what you do.
-
01
We don’t have a junior bench.
Stepchild is structured as a cooperative. It’s senior partners who share the profits, see the books, and only join briefs they care about. The people you meet at the kickoff are the people working with you throughout.
-
02
We don’t ship work the AI made.
We use the tools the way you’d use a calculator. The thinking is still the job, and we feel strongly that human behavior is best understood by other humans who’ve studied it for decades.
-
03
We won’t bury insights in eighty-slide decks.
We love doing very deep and detailed custom research and finding every angle, but we do it in service of the “surprise” and real strategy. We don’t do research for research’s sake.
-
04
We don’t sell capabilities. We solve problems.
We can and have done anything and everything in paid media, but we don’t start by listing it all. Give us your brief, and we’ll surprise you with options you probably haven’t considered.
-
05
We don’t take on briefs we don’t believe.
We’re picky for a reason. If you’ve got something hard to crack but a great product (and team), we want to hear about it (and you).
The agencies
Our brothers and sisters.
Here’s a few independent shops and specialty studios we’ve teamed up with on briefs that needed more than one set of hands. We’re happy to be a stepchild on any project and the bench that gets stuff done.
The brands
Our extended family.
Brands that we’ve been lucky to work with. Some at Stepchild. Some from earlier stops on the road. They are culture brands, startups, and stubborn incumbents, and all of them were ready to try something everyone else was afraid to.
Get in touch
When the strategy has to be right.
Tell us what you’re working on. We respond personally, the same day.
Let’s talk