New agency Vacation made a conscious decision to launch during Pride Month. The queer- and Latina-owned full-service agency wants to upend regular agency conventions with a unique approach designed to uplift the communities it aligns with.

While plenty of new agencies claim to be different, Vacation has carved out a niche, structuring its business objectives to lower the barrier of entry for female- and minority-owned small businesses with the belief that those emerging brands have greater needs for ambitious advertising. 

“We’re at a place in our careers where we can choose who we want to support with our time and talents,” said co-founder Andrew Mellen. “And emerging brands are often more inclined to behave boldly.” 

Its founders take the same approach to creative collaborations. Vacation has freelance agility and partners with underrepresented artist communities, including female directors, queer illustrators and photographers of color.

Janina Volpe, Mellen and Tanner Shea were previously senior leaders and longtime collaborators at agencies Giant Spoon and Mother. They have created work for brands including Dove, Stella Artois, IBM, AmEx, Honda, Perrier, Coca-Cola, Away, Absolut and others, collecting hardware along the way, like a Cannes Grand Prix and the inaugural One Club Green Pencil.

Volpe leads strategy for the agency and is noted for her leadership in diversity and inclusion. Mellen, head of creative, has written and directed branded short films, put out Super Bowl spots and premiered an interactive feature at the Tribeca Film Festival. Shea, head of design, honed his design skills in Austria, taught at Miami Ad School and has art-directed campaigns with major talent, including RuPaul, David Beckham, Carly Rae Jepsen, and even Bullseye, the Target dog.

A sense of purpose and fun

The agency’s name, Vacation, is designed to inspire people to make the most of their time.

“Creative work must, like a good holiday, leave an outsized impression in people’s minds,” said Volpe.

The three decided to start their own agency because they wanted a different way of working to prioritize their values while creating successful work.

The pandemic showed them that remote work could be effective. (Mellen is in Los Angeles, Volpe is in Chicago and Shea is based in New York.) With technology advancing rapidly, they were able to cut overhead and streamline their processes.

“What we’re hearing from clients is that they want lean creative muscle,” said Mellen, adding that there is less money on the table now, but it made the team realize they could “take a brilliant strategist and a couple decent creatives and producers that you trust, and we can create anything that a big agency can and without the redundancies, without the overhead, without the bloated calendars.”

Volpe said that even the imagery sets Vacation apart. While the industry tends to evoke images of men in black T-shirts against industrial backgrounds, Vacation aims to look different, with bold colors and photography from a former Playboy photographer.

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