Honeymoon

2021

Chicago, IL / Oklahoma City, OK

Public Relations & Communications; Brand Acts; Social & Influencer; Experiential & Content

60

Misfit

We were built to break the rules that make other agencies the same. 

1. OUR NAME: We call ourselves Honeymoon because we are engineered to keep the honeymoon period alive long after we’ve settled in with clients. By shifting team members, constantly introducing new technologies and platforms, and activating dynamic storytelling models (e.g., Fame by Friction, Moments to Momentum) that keep us fresh and honest, we avoid ever becoming another agency coat in our clients’ closets. 
2. OUR STRUCTURE: Most agencies still separate PR, influencer, and social into different silos—different P&Ls, different teams, different priorities. We collapse those walls. For us, modern communications is one practice, not three. That’s why our clients get ideas that scale across culture, community, and commerce without the seams showing.
3. NO “SCRAPPY-PHOBIA” We also refuse the industry’s obsession with bloated teams and layers of hierarchy. We’re proudly scrappy—because others won’t say it. Our model is lean, senior, and fast. The people you meet are the people on the work, and that work is always designed to move at the speed of culture—not the speed of a holding company.
4. REAL BRAND VIRALITY: And we don’t chase headlines for the sake of headlines. We believe in finding the cultural tension that audiences already care about and inserting the brand in a way that sparks conversation, not clutter. That approach is why our work for Sazerac (7 brands), Post (30 brands), Wells (3 brands), Binance, Chime and Topgolf didn’t just earn coverage—they earned relevance.

We’re former big agency people who were sick of being bludgeoned by the industry rules only to end up doing the same kind of work as everyone else. And after more than three years, the Honeymoon is going strong. 

Do you like models that use alliterations? Well, we’ve got plenty! (Okay, we have two but they’re good ones.)

Our independence gives us the freedom to chase real cultural relevance - it’s why most of our clients hire us. We don’t see friction as a hurdle — we see it as fuel. Our storytelling philosophy, Fame by Friction, is about identifying the tension points between brands and the world around them. Those cultural rubs — whether generational, behavioral, or emotional — spark the ideas that earn attention, headlines, and conversation. Our client brands can’t be heroes without any conflicts to conquer. 

But one-off brand acts alone aren’t enough. We design work to show up in the right cultural moment, then engineer it to ripple outward — across PR, social, influencer, experiences and beyond — so it doesn’t just land once but keeps compounding. That momentum mindset has turned one-off activations into brand platforms, fleeting headlines into long-tail engagement, and sparks into sustained growth. We call it Moments to Momentum.

More than models, though, we are about our culture and our people. Growth has allowed us to bring on more talent, and every person we hire is encouraged - nay, expected! - to make their voice heard. Lots of camaraderie, laughs and support of the professional and spiritual variety are the real gas in Honeymoon’s tank. We’re selling Fireball Whisky, Fruity Pebbles, Topgolf and Bomb Pop to name a few: New perspectives are always welcome, better ideas are always necessary, and amazing energy is always just good for everybody.  

In a word: growth. 

We’ve grown 600+% since this time in 2024, and we believe it’s because we offer a more free, authentic, nimble and results-driven approach than our more “established” competitors. We’ve won new PR, experiential, social and influencer business for more than 35 new brand clients across Post Consumer Brands, Sazerac, Gallo Wines, Chime Banking, Verizon, Wells Ice Cream, Topgolf and Wedderspoon Honey. 

In a word: Ourlastprofessionalexperience. 

Our leaders grew up indie, only to be sold into private equity, rolled into a publicly traded giant, and swallowed by the quarterly reporting cycle for Wall Street. We saw firsthand how creativity got slowed down by earnings calls, how ideas were watered down by silos and shareholder math. How actually servicing clients took a backseat to bureaucracy and stock prices. The things we loved most about this business got lost in the grind.

So we walked away. We built a new model: small by design, scrappy by nature, and integrated at the core. No P&L turf wars. No committee creep. Just one team, one idea, moving at the speed of culture, confident enough in their own abilities to embrace hackneyed terminology like “moving at the speed of culture,.”

We believe this work is supposed to be fun. Honeymoon allows our people to succeed, drive big results for our clients, grow exponentially, without ever losing sight of fun, love and happiness.

Crazily enough, we’ve had zero challenges. Really. It’s quite amazing, in fact. 

Okay, sure, our first client was summarily expelled from America for multiple sanction, legal and compliance failings. That was a bit of a wah-wah. 

And being a small midwest-based agency competing on a global scale hasn’t been a picnic.

Also, not having name recognition has led to more than one instance when we heard from clients “Your pitch was the best, but our leadership felt more comfortable going with the big boy.”

How did we overcome it? 

We’re still working at it, for sure, but the growth that we’ve experienced in the last year is a testament to remaining true to ourselves, living and breathing the Honeymoon brand. When we started, we believed there actually were big companies and global brands out there brave enough to try something new, and we’re finding that more and more of them are stepping into the light. 

Independence used to be seen as the alternative. Now it’s becoming the advantage.

As brands demand faster decisions, sharper cultural instincts, and integrated teams without bureaucracy, the holding-company model will keep straining under its own weight. Independence is where the future is already heading—agencies that can move faster, collapse silos, and scale without compromise.

Our role in that future? To show that independence isn’t a stepping stone, it’s a destination. To prove you can be proudly scrappy and still deliver the kind of relevance, results, and resonance that the industry’s biggest names struggle to match. And to keep the honeymoon alive—for our clients, our people, and the future of independent creativity.