[Interview] Emily Mitchell, MD, The Midnight Club

As The Midnight Club marks a decade of creative growth, its newly appointed Managing Director Emily Mitchell shares insights about the company’s evolving vision, the future of independent creative businesses and how culture, innovation and bold thinking are reshaping the industry

How does The Midnight Club’s 360 creative studio approach differ from a traditional agency model?

For us, “360” isn’t about offering every service under one roof for the sake of it. It’s about building brands and ideas that can move fluidly across culture, platforms and disciplines without losing their edge.

Practically, that means strategy, creative, production, design, editorial, partnerships, technology and talent all working as one connected system from the start - not passing work down a production line. That might mean developing a global brand platform one day, and the next a product innovation, a live experience, a film, an editorial format or a digital tool.

Traditional agency models were built around bottom heavy departments, retainers and processes. We’re built differently. Smaller senior teams, faster decision making, fewer layers, and importantly, more accountability by owning the whole process from end-to-end.

A lot of independent agencies still operate like the holding companies they want to distance themselves from, trying to protect structures that were designed for a different era. We’re trying to build something much more adaptive - a creative company designed for how brands actually need to operate now, and a decade on from now.

What gap in the market is The Midnight Club aiming to fill?

The Midnight Club didn’t set out to fill a gap in the market. A decade ago, we weren’t trying to disrupt the agency model - largely because we never really considered ourselves part of it in the first place. Neither our founder, nor our early leadership team came from traditional creative agency backgrounds, so from day one we built the business differently and around an alternative set of instincts.

We have never played the usual games. We don’t enter awards, we don’t sit within holding company structures. We’re not building a business to sell it. That independence has allowed us to stay culturally connected, creatively restless, and commercially honest - enduring qualities that clients naturally gravitate towards.

What’s interesting is that, ten years on, the industry has caught up with what clients were actually looking for all along. They want partners who move faster, think more holistically, care about the work more than the theatre around it, and operate with genuine skin in the game. In many ways, the “gap” we fill today is simply the result of staying true to how we’ve always worked.

As the first Managing Director, what are your immediate priorities?

The biggest priority is protecting what already makes the business special, while building the infrastructure that allows it to scale with intent.

The Midnight Club has built a reputation through instinct, taste and genuinely exceptional creative work. My role is to help continue to turn that into a long-term global business without losing the energy and personality that made it successful in the first place.

Internally, it’s also about clarity — how decisions get made, where we prioritise, what we say no to, and how we become one of the most influential creative companies in the world over the next decade.

What defines great creative work in today’s media landscape?

Great work today has to earn attention rather than assume it.

People are exposed to thousands of brand messages a day, so interruption alone doesn’t work anymore. For us, the answer lies in a distinct creative identity rooted in the idea of midnight itself - a transitional time where the edge of night meets the energy of day; where provocation collides with optimism. We’ve found that it’s in this tension, this duality, that the work becomes most original, memorable and potent.

We’re also seeing the definition of “campaign” fundamentally changing. Great work now often exists as ecosystems rather than executions. A collaboration, a social mechanic, a product drop, a documentary, a live moment, a partnership - all feeding the same core idea from different angles.

What is the biggest opportunity in today’s evolving creative industry?

The biggest opportunity is that the barriers between industries are collapsing. Creative companies are no longer confined to making advertising. We can channel that creativity towards building products, launching brands, developing IP, creating experiences, operating media platforms and generating entirely new revenue streams.

AI will obviously transform parts of the process, particularly when it comes to speed, iteration and production efficiency - but I actually think it places an even greater premium on taste, judgement and original thinking. If everyone has access to the same tools, differentiation comes from perspective.

The companies that struggle will be the ones trying to defend old ways of working. The ones that thrive will be the ones acting more like modern creative ecosystems.

Where do you see The Midnight Club fitting into this future landscape

We want to sit in the space between a creative studio, innovation partner, and brand in our own right. That means continuing to make world-class creative work for brands, but also increasingly building our own ideas, products and platforms.

There’s a real opportunity for independent companies right now. Clients are craving partners that feel closer to culture, less corporate and more emotionally invested in the work. Independence allows us to move faster, with less red tape, and a greater appetite for innovation.

What is your bold prediction for the creative industry over the next five years?

I think the distinction between “agency,” “media company,” “production company,” “consultancy” and “brand” will become increasingly irrelevant.

The most successful creative businesses will operate more like cultural conglomerates — building IP, owning audiences, launching products, producing entertainment and partnering with brands in much more fluid ways.

I also think we’ll see a major correction away from volume. The industry spent years optimising for output, but audiences are exhausted by disposable content. The future belongs to fewer, sharper, more meaningful ideas that people actually remember.

www.themidnightclub.com

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