Gravity Global Taps 5 Ex-Madwell Leaders to Launch Gen Z Division

Five former employees of Madwell, the debt-saddled indie agency whose various controversies led to its collapse in late April, have been tapped to form Gravity One, a millennial and Gen Z-focused division within the full-service agency Gravity Global, ADWEEK has learned. The financial details of the deal were not disclosed. 

Gravity One will be helmed by Charlie Smith and Devin Kharpertian. Smith, who was a strategy leader at Madwell, will serve as managing director of client services, while Kharpertian, a former Madwell creative lead, has been appointed managing director of creative. 

Three other ex-Madwell employees have joined as part of the founding leadership team: Julia Goldsmith, JP Summers, and Alex Kaufman, who will respectively lead production, strategy, and creative.

Both Smith and Kharpertian told ADWEEK it was important to them to keep the group together and build on the work they accomplished together at Madwell. It plans to bring on additional talent in the coming weeks.

The shop will offer a range of services across five major practice areas: creative, strategy, client services, production, and design. It will act as an independent branch within the larger Gravity Global, which operates more than a dozen offices across the U.S., U.K., and China, and counts Honda, Airbus, and United Healthcare among its clients. 

“We’re confident we can take on any kind of industry full-service work with those disciplines,” Smith said. It will focus specifically on “the next generation of consumers and audiences, and reaching them in unique and non-traditional ways.”

This is a key focus area for Gravity Global, whose president, Jose Lozano, is betting that the new talent will bring expertise to the millennial and Gen Z segments. The ex-Madwell employees, Lozano said, have “spent their careers targeting this segment that is incredibly powerful and growing extremely fast.” 

Lozano added: “By combining our scale, the global practices, the divisions, the capabilities we have, with the specialism of this practice and the targeting of this audience, we believe that we fit a perfect gap within the industry.”

The Gravity One team may be tapped to work on Gravity Global accounts, but will also build out its own roster. 

“We have this small, nimble team that can be different, fast, faster,” said Kharpertian. “We have this opportunity to create stuff very quickly, get into market fast, but still have the backing of a larger institution. It really is the best of all worlds.”

Talks are underway with some prospects, but the agency has yet to secure its first piece of business. Kharpertian did not want to share details of any conversations, such as whether any former Madwell clients might follow.

The group is not being held to any specific revenue targets, Gravity Global confirmed.

Success will be tied to having a “strong client roster and really doing impactful work,” said Smith. “You see many of these acquisitions and deals happen that are revenue-based. This was truly an investment in the talent. Of course, we’ll have to be successful and prove ourselves financially for this to make sense.”

The formation of Gravity One developed quickly in the wake of Madwell’s closure, as Smith was introduced to Gravity Global president Lozano through Mark Mitton, president of Gravity’s startup-focused arm, Sprint. 

Lozano called the deal “a meeting of minds.”

“[Smith and Kharpertian], along with their team, have done an unbelievable job,” said Lozano, “and what happened at their previous employer plays no role in their credibility, in their experience, in their ability to be successful.”