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When Everyone Has the Same Tools, Different Wins (and Another Thing Is That)
Another Thing is built on a simple bet: that brands need to stop trying to stand out with the same tools everyone else has
Chris Pape, Nick Kaplan, and Mike Cassell launched Another Thing in late July 2025 with what sounds like the most obvious insight in advertising: when every brand has access to the same technology, strategies, and ideas, doing the same thing gets you nowhere. The Boston and Richmond-based shop was born from that belief—that brands need to be relentlessly different.
Pape brings the entrepreneurial DNA (he built and sold his first agency), Kaplan comes from creative powerhouses like Wieden+Kennedy and 72andSunny, and Cassell brings brand and social strategy chops from major shops. Together, they’ve built something stripped of bureaucracy and laser-focused on one thing: mining social conversations and turning them into campaigns, not the other way around.
Current clients are getting Pape, Kaplan, Cassell, and a small collection of handpicked experts—no layers, no polish-the-brief-for-three-weeks theater. Just fast insights, faster execution, and work that feels wildly relatable rather than focus-grouped to death.
From “We need to start something different” to a two-day-old agency
The agency started with a phone call. Kaplan, working at a big shop, called Pape and said they needed to start something different. The thesis was simple: everyone has access to everything now—the same ideas, the same content, the same technology. Brands needed something else.
Pape had already been through the build-and-sell cycle with his first agency. He knew the entrepreneurial game. Kaplan and Cassell knew the big agency machine from the inside—how to make work at scale, and where all the friction lived. Together, they saw the opening for something faster and smarter.
Social-first insights that lead to big brand thinking
Most brand agencies talk about making work that starts conversations. Another Thing flips that completely. They look to social and the insights hiding there to identify existing conversations, then turn those into campaign ideas.
Kaplan describes it as making “wildly relatable work”—the kind you see yourself in immediately. Like great stand-up comedy, it’s surprising and shocking because it nails a truth you didn’t know you were thinking. And the internet is full of these truths, just sitting there waiting to be mined.
The formula: Cassell (brand and social strategy) finds the conversations and insights. Kaplan (creative) turns them into campaigns. Pape (entrepreneurial leadership and client relationships) makes sure it all lands with clients and moves fast. No perfect brief that needs to change after creative has ideas. Just text conversations, quick calls, and pressure-testing everything together.
Why independence matters when you’re building fast
Cassell has worked at both small and big agencies—including Pape’s first shop—and knows what gets lost in the layers. At bigger shops, you polish briefs for clients, then change them because creative has ideas. At Another Thing, a brief is a text conversation. Cassell bounces insights off Kaplan, they jam it out, then call the client to talk through it before putting anything on paper.
Sometimes the insight comes from Cassell giving Kaplan a bad idea, then breaking down what made it interesting. That formulaic approach—strategy hands brief to creative, creative executes, account manages up—is dead here. Everyone does what, but the lines blur when it means getting to something good, funny, and relatable faster.
Independence means speed. It means weird ideas that make them laugh don’t die in three rounds of internal reviews. It means clients are buying their brains, not bureaucracy.
Why brands should work with Another Thing
Brands are buying three people and a closely knit collection of experts. No bloat, no BS. At this stage, clients work directly with Pape, Kaplan, Cassell, and a few others—sometimes as the complete outside agency, sometimes embedded with internal teams.
The advantage is speed. They turn insights into action fast and produce work in close relationships with CMOs who want to move quickly. You’re getting the cream without the layers that slow everything down at bigger shops.
Why talent chooses Boston and Richmond
For Kaplan and Cassell, working in Boston (versus New York or LA) was part of the appeal. Less noise, less overhead, more focus on the work. Pape is in Richmond. The distributed setup works because they’ve stripped out the parts of agency life that require everyone in the same building.
Kaplan jokes that having an entrepreneur on the team gives him and Cassell confidence—someone who’s built something from nothing and knows how to navigate the scary parts. And clients need that entrepreneurial thinking too. Brands should think more like entrepreneurs, take more chances, move faster.
“We’re just three people who like working together”
When asked about weirdos, misfits, or underdogs, Pape dodges. “We’re not underdogs. We’re just three people who really like working together.” Fair enough.
But there is a misfit energy here—Kaplan met Pape through Pape’s college roommate (Kaplan’s older brother), drew on their walls with Sharpie at 16, and cost them the security deposit. Years later, they’re building an agency together. That tracks.
CMO shoutouts: challengers, QSR, and new CMOs
Pape wants to work with anyone who wants to do something different—brands that want to behave like challengers but aren’t necessarily challengers. Brands that need to punch above their weight class.
Kaplan calls out QSR as a category ripe for disruption. It’s a sea of sameness, and standing out requires pivoting in ways most brands in the space aren’t willing to try. Plus, they like to eat.
Cassell wants to work with a young, hungry CMO who just got the job and wants to take big swings. Someone building a career who needs a great agency partner to build with—no playbook, just feeding off each other and making great work together.
Learn more
Another Thing
Chris Pape LinkedIn
Nick Kaplan LinkedIn
Mike Cassell LinkedIn
Another Thing LinkedIn
Contact: info@anotherthing.agency
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