Creative
McCoy's
Frost Bank
Instacart "It's All In The Phone"
Instacart (Project)
Introducing American Vintage II | Fender
Fender (Project)
For Those Who Need Water to Breathe
Costa Sunglasses
Cases
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YETI
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Fender (Project)
News
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After a competitive review, we will partner with Orvis, the family-owned and operated outdoor retailer that specializes in fly-fishing and wingshooting gear, dog products and active lifestyle apparel. McJ will be charged with elevating Orvis’ brand awareness, starting with brand strategy and activation.
mcj.co, 11/22/2021
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McGarrah Jessee’s New Employment Policies Include Unlimited and Mandatory PTO
Our new policies include changes to our vacation policy and where employees are expected to live. We now offer employees unlimited paid time off and actually require employees to take at least three weeks of paid time off per year to ensure they take time to rest and replenish. We also eliminated any geographical restrictions to employment.
AdWeek, 12/18/2020
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An ad agency made Alexa apologize to losing Amazon HQ2 cities
Amazon may not have picked these locales for its second headquarters, but at least now they get weirdly specific apologies from Alexa. Because Amazon is unlikely to utter even the most cursory “It’s not you, it’s me,” Austin, Texas-based agency McGarrah Jessee created custom apologies on Amazon’s behalf. Each apology is accessible through Alexa skills–and they can get oddly specific to each city.
Fast Company, 11/13/2018
Clients
| Client | Start Year | End Year |
|---|---|---|
| McCoy's | 2021 | Current |
| HEYDUDE (Project) | 2022 | 2022 |
| Instacart (Project) | 2022 | Current |
| Whataburger | 2003 | Current |
| Frost Bank | 1997 | Current |
| YETI | 2012 | Current |
| Costa Sunglasses | 2008 | Current |
| Lyft | 2018 | Current |
| Fender (Project) | 2022 | Current |
| Orvis | 2021 | Current |
About
We are a full-service, Austin-born, 130-person creative agency – 25 years in the making. We believe advertising alone isn’t the answer to any major business opportunity. Because of that, we partner deeply with a few select clients to help them evaluate their whole brand experience, from point of sale to advertising to how they show up in social.
What drives us? Not just great work, but the ability to fundamentally impact our clients’ businesses. Our sweet spot? Fueling irrational brand fandom for our clients.
People
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Mark McGarrah
Founder
As one of the agency’s founders, Mark is dedicated to building and protecting the culture he co-created at McGarrah Jessee. Mark started his career in advertising back in 1985 at The Richards Group. Over the next seven years, he learned to master the art of account service. He also forged a partnership with an equally demanding young creative named Bryan Jessee. From there, Mark joined GSD&M as vice president/account director. In 1996, he and Bryan decided to test a hunch they had about creating an agency culture that truly collaborated deep and wide with brands. As it turns out, this was not such a bad idea. -
Tim Roan
Chief Creative Officer
Our most recent hire, Tim is our Chief Creative Officer and leads the overall creative direction of our agency. After working at agencies like FCB NY, Mullen, BBDO, and Wieden + Kennedy, Tim joined the client side of our business to work at Lyft and Away Luggage. We are excited to have him join our agency and bringing his unique perspective to help us build irrational brand fandom. -
Bryan Jessee
Founder
A co-founder of McGarrah Jessee, Bryan sets the creative standard for the agency. His dedication to the craft of advertising has led to numerous industry awards and, most importantly, to growth for clients. Early in his career, Bryan joined the Richards Group where he worked his way up to group creative director and often partnered with a demanding account supervisor named Mark McGarrah. He then joined GSD&M as vice president/creative director. Bryan’s relentless drive to push creative boundaries eventually led him to start an agency with his old buddy Mark. To this day, Bryan continues to approve every piece of work that passes through the agency. -
Jen Hruska
Chief Strategy Officer
As our Chief Strategy Officer, Jen leads our strategy teams in uncovering "un-obvious truths" about our clients and their consumers – all in an effort to drive more irrational brand fandom. Jen has an extensive background, coming to us from CP+B, GSD&M, and Accenture where she worked across brands like Old Navy, Netflix, Hotels.com, American Airlines, Amazon Fashion, Amex, and Infiniti. -
Melissa Fodo
Chief Engagement Officer
In her role as the agency's Chief Engagement Officer, Melissa Fodo guides the curation of when and where the customer experience takes place. She leads the media and content teams to devise and deploy integrated plans that drive healthy brands. Fodo, as she’s known around the agency, came to McGarrah Jessee in 2005 from Publicis. -
Britton Upham
Chief Executive Officer
Britton has been with McGarrah Jessee for 20 years – yes, 20 years. As Chief Executive Officer, Britton is passionate about being involved in all aspects of our business – from strategy to creative to media to production to our recruitment efforts. defining a brand promise for a company, product or service. A McJ'er through and through, Britton has experience working with AT&T, YETI, Lyft, Brooks Running, Costa Sunglasses, Shiner, among others.