New York, NY—Day One Agency is today launching a new, standalone studio called Side Projects, designed to deepen cultural understanding for the agency and its clients.
Since its founding, Day One has believed deeply in the power—and necessity—of an editorial point of view. To that end, for the last 12 years, the company has been quietly building up a set of capabilities that are distinct to the advertising, PR and social media services industry. Not only is it the driving force behind a number of highly successful editorial outlets, but also provides consultative services designed to deepen its clients’ ability to stay ahead of consumer behavior and culture.
“Each great editorial company has a creative agency, we’re flipping that idea on its head—we’re a creative agency starting an editorial business,” said Josh Rosenberg, CEO and Co-Founder of Day One Agency. “In our increasingly obsessed-with-AI world, critical thinking is a superpower; it’s important to keep moving against the grain. Writing is a way of organizing our thoughts and giving brands the time and space to block out the noise and think for themselves.”
Client demand for Day One’s editorial and cultural research services has risen such that setting the business apart from Day One made sense. Led by Eli Williams, Strategy Director, and Clara Malley, Editorial Director, Side Projects is designed to help brands better understand and navigate how they show up in culture. The studio applies a critical lens to how advertising shapes today’s cultural landscape across digital surfaces, generational cohorts, and our social fabric, giving clients clearer direction on how to engage with relevance and intent.
To help brands operate with confidence and clarity—and earn relevance without sacrificing legacy—the studio will offer clients:
- Bespoke newsletters
- Curated, weekly temp-check on how your brand is showing up in culture and across social.
- Customized workshops
- Creative programming and speaker curation to unlock new thinking that translates creative sparks into actionable business opportunities.
- Cultural curation
- Landscape overviews and strategic foresight tied to a specific brief (ie. upcoming brand moment, product release, yearly planning) or evergreen cultural guidance.
- Focused white papers
- Custom qualitative research aimed at understanding consumer behaviors and cultural shifts within specific industries and product categories.
Beyond that, the studio will continue producing a number of highly acclaimed editorial and media outlets, much of which has been led by Williams and Malley over the past five years.
Together, they’ve asked critical questions and produced thoughtful work including an annual culture report and analysis that’s taken many forms, from Predictionary to Almanac, over the years. Alongside Day One’s VP, Story, Trey Taylor, they’ve hosted Day One FM, a weekly podcast that’s grown 126% over the past year while welcoming guests like Kyle Chayka, Delia Cai, Recho Omondi, Max Tani, Lauren Sherman, and Nilay Patel.
“Side Projects is an opportunity to utilize editorial and the power of thought and writing and distillation to help our clients be sharper,” said Day One Agency’s CCO, Jamie Falkowski. “To move beyond the surface level of trends and headlines and dive deep into what actually matters to their consumer.”
The studio’s editorial output will include a weekly newsletter and podcast, ongoing cultural analysis, and quarterly special projects, starting with ISSUE 01, a zine available for order at side-projects.co. Williams says, “We’re excited to operate outside of the day-to-day briefs, with more space to interrogate and delve deeper into the tensions and shifts we’re seeing across culture.”
Day One Agency has worked with global brands including American Express, Nike, Chipotle, and e.l.f. for many years, and been named to Fast Company’s Most Innovative and AdAge’s A-List for its singular POV on earning a place in culture, and earned a reputation for reading the cultural tea leaves. Side Projects will allow the agency to continue forging ahead by giving a nimble team the opportunity to experiment and innovate with brands looking for a fresh perspective.
