Mojo Supermarket is staffing up with three significant hires and a high-profile business win.
As of January, Mojo Supermarket had just six full-time employees, but the independent shop now numbers 31 employees in service of big-name brands like The Truth Initiative, rowing machine startup Hydrow and its latest client, StockX, an e-commerce reseller platform for sneakers, streetwear and more that claims 30 million global monthly visitors.
The new additions to the Mojo team include Tasha Cronin, head of production, who joins from Droga5; Hannah Benabdallah, head of communications, who moves from media company Vice; and Autumn Maison, who takes the role of “dean,” which the agency defines as someone “who fosters a safe and motivational school for creative individuals.”
Maison joins the company after four years at Spotify on its in-house creative team. Cronin spent nearly seven years with Accenture Interactive’s Droga5, where she oversaw the team of interactive and experiential producers. Benabdallah, whose role will be to help shape Mojo’s story, was global communications director at Vice.
Despite what seems like rapid growth, Mojo Supermarket has been trying to move slowly toward what Founder and Chief Creative Officer Mo Said called the “perfect trajectory.”
“All the things that we've won so far, and all the pieces of work we've made, we've been trying to plan the perfect trajectory, and not trying to just take on as many things as we can or take on as many people as we can,” he said. “Our goal at the end is to build the greatest creative company.”
Mojo views itself as more than just an agency, and Said noted that his goal is to continue growing without “losing the plot,” rather than “just adding numbers and adding valuation and adding revenue.”
Culture trading
StockX, which bills itself as "the next generation of commerce" for "consuming and trading current culture," fits well within the Mojo portfolio, he said, because it matches the rules and passion the agency seeks when working with a new client.
“They’re at heart a place for culture,” Said said. “So if you're a sneakerhead, you find your culture there. If you like collectible art, you can find your culture there. If you want to buy sneakers, you go to Footlocker; when you want to invest in that culture, you go to StockX, so we're really, really excited.”
StockX has seen rapid growth during the pandemic. The rise in online shopping led to an increase in profit for StockX, which according to the Wall Street Journal plans to go public and was valued in April at $3.8 billion.
What Mojo has planned for StockX is still under wraps, but the first campaign is projected to hit during the first half of 2022. Mojo's founder said the agency wants to expand the audience for the company because “either you know what it is or you don’t.” But the goal is to start with one meaningful moment for the brand and expand to long-term projects.
“We have to make sure that what StockX stands for can be communicated to other people and more people can understand what it stands for," he said. "So that's what we'll do.”