An Unwell addition: What Alex Cooper’s creative agency is bringing to the celebrity advertising world

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There’s nothing unwell about leading a media company, a beverage brand, and an ad agency—unless, of course, Alex Cooper is the one doing it.

Earlier this month, the podcast host and internet personality announced Unwell Creative Agency, a new advertising outfit offering services like creating content, developing campaigns, and strategizing events, according to Unwell’s chief brand officer, TJ Marchetti. The agency’s unveiling was announced alongside a multiyear partnership with Google that includes Unwell’s use of Google devices and a new ad for Google Pixel and T-Mobile called “Get Lost.”

Cooper’s not the only well-known entertainment figure to dip into the advertising world in the past few years (see: Kristen Bell’s Dunshire Productions or Ryan Reynolds’s Maximum Effort), but she does straddle an interesting line between full-blown celebrity and internet-native influencer. The company is positioning Cooper’s understanding of her chronically online Gen Z audience as a strength that will allow its work to uniquely cut through the noise. Amid a growing field of celeb-led advertising expertise, the fledgling agency is framing Cooper’s unique perspective as the edge that sets Unwell apart.

“Alex is involved in everything we do. Some people think that, given all of the demands of Call Her Daddy and being the co-CEO, that she would be a figurehead or something. That’s not the case,” Marchetti told Marketing Brew. “This company is built on that DNA.”

Well, well, well…

Marchetti told us he believes the marketing funnel and traditional agency approach are “broken,” and that Unwell Creative Agency can help fix it and reach younger audiences that may be wary of other forms of advertisements.

“In this demographic, they don’t really trust brands that can’t relate to them,” he said.

While Marchetti said that Cooper aims to be as hands-on as possible, and Unwell’s first spot with Google stars Cooper, Unwell will create ads that don’t all star Cooper, who recently told the Wall Street Journal that she doesn’t intend to be the face of every campaign produced by the agency. Marchetti said each project will require different degrees of Cooper’s involvement, and the agency’s work will carry her approach while relying on a “roster of creatives” to help ideate and produce campaigns.

For brands, working with celebrity-fronted agencies can be one way to cut through in culture. Alyson Griffin, head of marketing at State Farm, said that tapping into a celebrity’s perspective and personal network is a common value proposition that celeb-fronted agencies have approached her with, and she personally appreciates when a celebrity has “skin in the game” and works directly on a campaign. The insurance company has previously worked with Reynolds’s Maximum Effort on everything from viral stunts to shifting media spend from linear TV to digital advertising, and Griffin said State Farm has also explored working with other similar agencies.

“They bring this cultural fluency, credibility and relevance, and I think therefore some brands can look at it as the fastest path to a virtual front page of the internet,” Griffin told us. “We don’t do it all the time, but [working with celebrity agencies] will get some interest.”

When State Farm worked with Maximum Effort to place Jake from State Farm in the stands of a Philadelphia Eagles game next to Travis and Jason Kelce’s mother, Donna Kelce, Reynolds’s involvement generated its own media cycle, mostly focused on the virality of the stunt. Griffin said that virality was only made possible because of speed (the whole stunt was developed and executed over a Friday-to-Sunday timeline), and that speed was only possible because of a sense of trust State Farm had already established with the agency—a requirement whether an agency partner is celeb-led or not.

Unwell is similarly looking to establish those trusted relationships with brands, and is aiming to build off of any virality for longer-term results.

“Our agency is about building long-term relationships with brands and helping them build relationships with the audience,” Marchetti said. “It’s not through a one-off. It’s through creative that truly connects.”

As Unwell builds out its client roster, Marchetti said his team is looking to stay selective, and will emphasize its experience in live events and distribution channels as a way to stand out.

Meanwhile, Griffin is keeping an eye on influencers and their advertising offerings, too, particularly as some of them prove adept at building distribution networks around themselves.

“Creative influencers,” she noted, “are like a cultural media ecosystem—much bigger than celebrity.”