A London creative agency founded in 1996 by a group of friends who wanted to stay independent, known for work for IKEA, KFC and Stella Artois.
Mother is a creative company with its home in London. It makes advertising, design and brand experiences. Its recent work includes IKEA's "Storage Is Sexy" and KALLAX campaigns, KFC's "Trailer" and "All Hail Gravy", and Uber's "Best Friends". Its homepage also shows recent work for Anthropic ("Time and a Place"), Uber Eats and M&S ("Love That!"). Past clients named in coverage include Boots, Coca-Cola, Google, Stella Artois, Unilever brands such as PG Tips and Pot Noodle, and Amnesty International.
The agency says it began in 1996 when a group of friends met around a kitchen table and decided to leave network-owned agencies to be "100% independent". It lists its beliefs in its own words: "We Make Our Children Proud", "We Pitch it Forward" (when a client skips a traditional pitch, it says it gives its first year's profits to organisations that support the next generation of industry talent) and "Not for Sale". A trade listing quotes its ambition to be "a destination brand for the most creative minds in the world".
Mother's founders, according to Wikipedia, are Mark Waites, Stef Calcraft, Libby Brockhoff and Robert Saville. The agency moved to its Shoreditch offices in London in 2004, in a building designed by Clive Wilkinson Architects. It also has offices in New York, Los Angeles, Shanghai and Berlin, and a design arm called Mother Design. A trade listing calls it the UK's largest independent creative agency. A second listing says it began in Clerkenwell, and its own site now lists sister companies and divisions including Mother Design, Media by Mother, Mother Made, SuperBloom, Broody, The Or, Mother Ventures and Mother Goods.
Mother's site says the agency is home to "the world's most creative people (including our clients)" and that it has more than 250 people (a trade listing gives 301 to 400, so the figure may depend on the date and on whether the whole group is counted). Its welcome text on the homepage reads "Big ideas and nice people", and the listing cites awards including The Sunday Times Best Companies Best Places to Work, again as the company's own claim. Those are the agency's own claims, so ask when you meet the team. Its independence is a big part of its story: it says it does not answer to a public company or shareholders and is not for sale.
Inside an agency like this you will find creative teams (writers and art directors), strategists, producers, designers, account handlers who look after clients, and film and content makers. Because it does design as well as advertising and experiences, the range of roles is wider than the word advertising suggests.
Website: motherlondon.com
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