My career in 5 executions: Circus Maximus' Ryan Kutscher

Ryan Kutscher

By I-Hsien Sherwood, Published on March 02, 2017

Ryan Kutcher was featured in an article from Campaign US talking about his career. Here's the article in case you missed it:

“From 'Whopper Freakout' to blue Skittles, the Circus Maximus founder makes work that makes mischief.

Name: Ryan Kutscher

Title: Co-founder and Creative Director, Circus Maximus

Years in ad industry: 13

First job in ad industry: Copywriting intern, CP+B

Ryan Kutscher discovered advertising late in his college career, while pursuing a degree in economics. After developing his skills at Miami Ad School, he landed an unpaid internship at Crispin Porter + Bogusky that turned into a job offer.

Over nearly six years at CP+B, Kutscher helped create celebrated campaigns for brands like Burger King and Method. He left in 2009 to freelance, and put in a stint as a creative director at Victor & Spoils. In 2012, he accepted a "traditional" industry position, taking over as co-CCO at J. Walter Thompson New York.

The office job was a short-lived learning experience, and a year later, he co-founded Circus Maximus with Amalgamated’s Doug Cameron.

Kutscher says advertising is best when it doesn’t behave like advertising. "Anytime you can make mischief with the assumptions of how communication, idea diffusion and persuasion are supposed to work, you’re probably on the right track."

Client: Jet.com

Agency: Circus Maximus

Work: "Jet.com introduction"

Year: 2015

Jet.com’s shopping platform had raised a billion dollars in funding, and they turned to Kutscher’s new agency to pull in users. Jet turned shopping into a kind of game, so "we wanted to gamify the buzz," he says.

The agency brought in "Silicon Valley" star Kumail Nanjiani in a bit of meta casting. Nanjiani’s character on the show is also trying to launch a digital platform, and Jet.com paid the real Nanjiani in stock. The next year, Walmart bought the company for $3 billion.

Kutscher didn’t get any stock, but he’s prepared for next time. "If you run a unicorn, call me."

Client: Justworks

Agency: Circus Maximus

Work: Justworks subway campaign

Year: 2014

As an entrepreneur himself, Kutscher understood what Justworks needed to say to its audience. "We showed up to the first meeting with a bunch of work, which is maybe not always a great idea, but they loved it, we loved them, the work ran, and we’ve been doing all kinds of stuff with them since," including display ads and direct mail, he says. (The NYC subway ads are ubiquitous.)

"There’s no reason that this brand should be fun, but the people have made it great," Kutscher says. "It’s probably my favorite campaign."