Aussie expat creatives Damien Eley and Scott Harris leave Mother in London for Mistress in LA

EXCLUSIVE – After four very successful years at Mother London, top Aussie expat creative team Damien Eley and Scott Harris have linked up with an ex-colleague from their time at Ogilvy, New York (and two other partners) to start an agency in LA called Mistress.

Eley, who is in Sydney until January 14, told CB: “After four years at BMF, Sydney (where we were the founding creative team), four years working on some of the world’s biggest clients in New York and four years pushing the boundaries with Mother, London (we co-wrote and developed the hugely successful and ground-breaking ‘Pot Noodle – The Musical’), we have decided to bring our learnings from three continents to the new company.

“Mistress already has a couple of clients. Scotty and I left London inDecember and we will join our partners in LA later this month. It willbe fully independent and we plan to challenge every facet of the’normal’ way things are done.

“Mistress is a business idea, the play on words is fun but we’re quiteserious. The industry as we know it is fracturing and evolving fasterthan a lot of people realise. There are so many more options these daysboth for the client and the agency – the global recession has forced usall to demand the most from all of our partners, whichever side of thecreative fence you are on

Mistress will be about having a bit more fun – about honest dialoguebetween clients and their creative partners. We plan to developmeaningful relationships whether it be for short-term, project-basedwork or for clients who require longer-term partnerships.”