Britton Upham, Chief Growth Officer at McGarrah Jessee, has watched a lot of agencies come and go in 30 years. McJ, as it is known by many, isn’t going anywhere. The Austin shop — founded by Mark McGarrah and Bryan Jessee — built its reputation on one deceptively powerful idea: that the goal isn’t to earn customers, it’s to earn fans. Their most famous proof of concept is Yeti, which they helped grow from a niche cooler brand into a full-blown global lifestyle phenomenon. Today, the agency operates out of Austin and 22 other cities, with clients across outdoor, consumer goods and challenger brands. “We report to our values and to our clients, brands and to the work,” Upham says. “That’s it.” Thirty years and counting — and they’re still building.
How McGarrah Jessee became the lifestyle brand whisperers
McGarrah Jessee hit 30 this year, which puts it in genuinely rare company in the indie world. Founded in Austin by Mark and Bryan — who built something with real staying power from the start — the agency entered media in 1996, long before most independents thought twice about it. That early investment in data and infrastructure laid the groundwork for what they now call “indie amplified”: a positioning that sits between the holding companies and boutique shops, designed to capture the accounts that fall through the cracks on both sides.
What McGarrah Jessee is known for: lifestyle brand architecture
Nine out of ten new business conversations start the same way — “We want what you did with Yeti.” It’s become McJ’s unofficial tagline and a useful filter for whether a prospect truly understands the work. What Yeti represents isn’t just good creative. It’s a brand taken from a single niche following to a global identity, without losing itself in the expansion. That’s the specific thing McGarrah Jessee has spent 30 years refining: finding a brand’s core truth, amplifying it with obsessive consistency and building a community around it that converts customers into evangelists.
Three core strengths: data, showing up, fandom
The first is harvesting what Upham calls “un-obvious truths” — using data science to uncover the insight that makes creative land. The second is showing up for people on behalf of brands, which means leading with value — inspiration, information, utility — rather than pushing product. The third is what happens when those two things compound over time: irrational fandom. Customers stop just preferring the brand and start using it as a form of self-expression. They recruit others in. They defend it through recessions. McJ is now building a proprietary fandom score — essentially an NPS on steroids — to quantify exactly when a brand crosses that line.
Why independence still matters at year 30
The acquisition offers haven’t slowed down. By Upham’s telling, the McJ inbox has been busy with them for the better part of 15 years — and the answer has stayed consistent. The founders built something with culture at its center, and culture is the thing that doesn’t survive a bad acquisition. “We’re not really interested in selling that out,” he says. The result is an agency with roughly half the industry’s turnover rate — talent retention built on genuine ownership, not perks.
What a brand partnership with MCJ looks like
McGarrah Jessee positions itself as a partner that obsesses over every touch point, whether they’re managing it or not. Full service is on the table — design, events, social, production, media, data science — but the approach isn’t about volume. It’s about the belief that customers don’t experience the funnel, they experience the brand. “Above the line, below the line, there is no line,” Upham says. The fandom score they’re building is designed to put hard numbers behind that philosophy: measurable proof that sustained creative investment shows up in sales.
Why talent chooses McGarrah Jessee — and stays twice as long
The retention stat is hard to ignore: roughly half the industry’s average turnover. Part of the reason is the culture cards — a physical deck of values, virtues and agency lore that new employees collect during onboarding. Part of it is the “stay new” philosophy: the idea that every new hire brings an outside perspective worth protecting, not flattening. And part of it is what Upham calls the martre of agencies — a vision of a full-service shop as a creative community where data scientists, strategists, designers and photographers all draw on different worlds. When the team spread across 22 cities, McJ built Found and Unbound: an internal TED-style conference that brought voices from every corner back together.
Weirdos, misfits or underdogs
“Celebrate the weirdos,” Upham says. “Celebrate the individuals.” Austin’s “Keep Austin Weird” ethos is in the DNA here, but the framing runs deeper than local flavor. Upham sees every person in the agency as a distinct node — someone who wants to be seen, recognized and allowed to stay themselves while contributing to something larger. That’s the same belief system McJ brings to brand work. The agency isn’t interested in flattening people into a type. It wants the individuals.
CMO hello: Jeni Britton Bauer
Upham’s shout-out goes to Jeni Britton Bauer, founder of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams. His case for working with her is as personal as it gets — he once punched through the bottom of a pint with his spoon, took a photo and sent it to the brand. The devotion to craft, the retail experiences, the move into fiber bars — he tracks it all with the attention of someone who genuinely believes in the product. “Hello Jeni, from one Britton to another,” he says. That’s either a great cold email or a great place to start a creative brief.
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