Achingly Youth-Attuned, Dazed Studio Knows What’s Hot

Many companies in the advertising business claim to have a finger on the cultural pulse. Few truly do. Then there’s Dazed Studio. The in-house creative agency and production studio, part of Dazed Media, is leveraging its independent spirit and editorial-driven approach and keeping the uber-cool counter-cultural spirit alive to honour the legacy of how it all started: as a magazine in the ‘90s that pushed boundaries and created, not just reflected, what was cool.

In operation since 2015, Dazed Studio aims to redefine brand love for the next generation. “We blend strategy, storytelling, and creativity to craft unforgettable experiences that resonate with gen z. We’re not an ad agency. We’re a hybrid creative shop and branded entertainment studio that connects brands with influential consumers through the culture engines of style, sport, and internet trends,” says Jamie Knowles, Dazed Studio’s managing director. With offices in London, New York, and Los Angeles, the teams are intimately attuned to what is cool when – and even before – it’s happening, allowing brands like Smirnoff, Hinge, Nike, Tory Burch, and Moncler to tap into youth culture in a way that would be inaccessible to them otherwise.

One of the biggest challenges that the studio helps brands solve is the creation of an ownable voice. For Hinge, Dazed Studio looked to the biggest #BookTok trends to create the ‘No Ordinary Love’ campaign, tapping six literary figures to write novellas about couples navigating their love stories. Dazed was also behind Smirnoff’s announcement of Troye Sivan as chief vibes officer. It’s safe to say that when it comes to helping brands get creative, get noticed, the studio isn’t interested in playing it safe. Talent trusts them too, knowing that a partnership will be attuned to what’s cool and relevant, ultimately helping to boost their own image, not just the brands’.

LBB’s Zhenya Tsenzharyk sat down with Jamie to learn more about the Dazed Studio’s culturally-powered mission, its global, youth-attitude capabilities; and why it launched an AI tool, DAZED ARCHIVE, to continue helping young creatives find and build a voice in the industry, democratising access in the process.

LBB> Tell us a little bit about how Dazed Studio came to life and what makes it different from other studios/agencies operating today.

Jamie> We launched in 2015 and, with the changing landscape in advertising, I believe Dazed Studio holds a unique position. We bring something different: we're born from an editorial world, and that gives us an edge. When we work with talent, creatives, or explore ways to future-proof our clients' businesses and build brand love, we draw on three decades of editorial legacy. That's not something you can fabricate overnight. Our roots in youth culture and entertainment give us an authentic voice, which has been incredibly powerful.

LBB> Do you feel like you get to be more selective because of your heritage?

Jamie> Yes, I think so. Our general way of working is to be consultative and make sure that the project and the briefs that come our way make sense for us. We typically get to work on an AOR relationship, which we've had a number of over the years, or project-based work.

In either category, we tend to pinch ourselves because we get to work on things that are interesting. Clients tend to want to have a little bit of fun, push the boundaries, and try out something new. When it comes to Dazed Studio, the editorial world we occupy can be quite evocative and fairly radical. In some cases, especially for American clients, there's sometimes an initial fear factor, ‘Will this agency push us too far or take us to a realm we're not comfortable with?’ But I would actually say that is one of our secret superpowers. We can get to a point where a client starts to feel the edge without taking them so far that we've distorted their brand or created something totally unrecognisable. We've done a tonne of work with Tory Burch over the years, which I think is a great example of finding that balance.

LBB> When Dazed launched as a magazine in 1991, it was boundary pushing in a lot of ways and never afraid of provocations, whether visually or with its editorial themes. How is that spirit living on in what Dazed Studio does today?

Jamie> A lot of the work we're building upon is the legacy of Dazed. The magazine is special, both as a publisher and as a cultural force. Even when you look at our audience numbers, 40% of our audience is US-based, which is surprising. There's a real vacuum for the kinds of stories Dazed tells. We don’t do roundup clickbait articles or shopping editorials. That’s just not what people come to Dazed for.

Harnessing and channeling that storytelling, especially given the global climate in 2025, will continue to be our North Star. Another key aspect is how, across both the publisher and the studio, we’ve prioritised supporting next-gen voices long before it was considered a necessity, especially following the impact of what happened to George Floyd in the US.

Diversity has always been central to what we do. We’ve consistently championed those who haven't had the same level of historical access. Often, we commission stories from people still in college, giving them their first opportunity as published writers or creators. We commissioned photographer Tyler Mitchell while he was still at NYU, before he went on to work with Beyoncé. Similarly, our editor-in-chief was first commissioned by us while still in university, later making the Dazed 100, and eventually becoming our editor-in-chief. That spirit defines Dazed.

LBB> Does that permeate to the studio as well?

Jamie> When it comes to our studio work, we’re focused on creating career pathways. We consider who in our broader network makes sense for commercial projects, collaborating editorially to help build portfolios and professional opportunities. It’s about opening doors and fostering long-term creative growth.

About 80% of our projects, whether publishing or creative campaign briefs, have a strong cultural relevance KPI. Many also involve talent alignment, which is one of our key strengths. When we’re in the room strategising talent casting or analysing youth culture trends, we build creative strategies that feel authentic.

Talent is often more excited to work with Dazed than with a traditional agency because of the editorial trust we’ve built. They know they’ll be presented in a way that’s fresh and culturally resonant, which ultimately benefits brand perception. A great example is our work with Smirnoff. We’ve essentially been their cultural agency, helping shape their two-year partnership with Troye Sivan, announced last fall. We led the cultural strategy that determined how to introduce Troye, how to communicate his role within Smirnoff’s world, and how to shape the long-term narrative. It was a deeply strategic culture brief, and we continue to develop meaningful brand stories in this space.

LBB> How does the trust and creative integrity of the magazine, and now the studio, translate to what you’re able to achieve for brands?

Jamie> I initially mentioned creative integrity and trust with talent or creative partners, but this trust also extends to our client-agency relationships. For example, with Tory Burch, we introduced them to Sydney Sweeney a few years ago and we then collaborated on several projects. The first Sydney Sweeney campaign launched in two parts: one during the holiday season and another right after ‘Euphoria’ season two premiered. It was Sydney’s moment, and the campaign became the brand’s best-performing social campaign at the time, with the Instagram Reel alone hitting around 14 million views.

Following that success, Tory Burch negotiated their first-ever celebrity brand ambassadorship with Sydney. We later returned to collaborate on a follow-up holiday campaign to close out her contract. That campaign leaned into Sydney’s irreverent and sometimes snarky personality but in a way that stayed true to Tory Burch’s brand identity. It was a fantastic 360-degree project that spanned retail, social, and experiential design.

LBB> Thinking about the clients that you work with, what are the biggest challenges that they have that you're helping them to solve?

Jamie> We've been working with clients in the financial services industry, navigating the nuances of money culture and finding ways to position brands with a unique, ownable voice. Similarly, we've collaborated with Hinge to explore what dating culture looks like and how the brand can carve out a distinctive, memorable territory. In both cases, the focus has been on driving brand love, loyalty, and share of mind: key factors in such competitive spaces.

Additionally, there’s been significant change in how paid media performs, and clients are rethinking their paid, owned, and earned media strategies. Brands are exploring partnerships and campaigns with a different lens than they did between 2020 and 2022, reflecting the evolving landscape.

LBB> When you first became the MD, did you have any particular goals in mind, or anything that you wanted to achieve that you've been doing over the last year?

Jamie> I primarily look after North America, but increasingly, we're running more of our global creative agency clients through New York. This approach allows us to create an always-on capability across our offices. With London as the mothership, New York as a key hub, and a satellite team in LA focused on production and creative, we can effectively manage clients across the West Coast, Europe, and beyond. Depending on the brief, the pace, and key deadlines, this structure allows us to deliver quickly and efficiently, particularly in the lead-up to shoots or major campaign milestones.

One of our goals has been to formalise our setup in Los Angeles, ensuring we have a dedicated presence there while maintaining our global capabilities across these three core cities. On the publishing side, we also have Dazed Korea, Dazed MENA, and Nowness China. When we receive global briefs that tap into those regions, we can rely on our editorial counterparts to ensure the campaigns we develop resonate when launched in those markets.

Strategically, we continue to build out our cultural agency capabilities while expanding into a youth culture entertainment studio space. This extends to branded entertainment and experiential projects. We have some exciting upcoming work with a major global retailer that centers on bringing culture into retail environments: an innovative approach to engaging gen z in meaningful ways and driving results.

LBB> What kind of trends and industry developments is Dazed Studio particularly attuned to?

Jamie> A place like Dazed is really interesting when it comes to technology, particularly AI, because it’s what everyone’s talking about right now. It’s already completely transformed how we think about the world. One of the things we’re really focusing on is how AI can enhance the creative process and support young creatives. How can AI make creativity more accessible, especially for young people who aren’t from major cities with a strong historical connection to creative industries like fashion? A great example of this is our launch, on Dazed Digital, of an AI search engine built around our archive.

I sent it to some clients and friends in the industry to get honest feedback and the responses were overwhelmingly positive. In some cases people said, "Wow, if this had existed when I was in college, or when I was trying to get my foot in the door, it would have been so helpful."

The whole purpose of that project is to address a big issue for young creatives: there’s so much fear around sharing ideas in a space with peers or more senior people. So, part of this tool is meant to be a research resource to help develop ideas and source inspiration, whether it’s for designing a fashion collection, writing a fashion article, or putting something together. It’s also intended to be iterative. Through that process, can this tool help the person using it gain some creative confidence before they share their ideas with a group?

It really does bridge the gap between offline experiences and what’s lived online. To me, that’s what perfectly captures what Dazed is all about. The vision for the future is to think beyond our silos, especially when it comes to regionalism, and find ways to open up opportunities for everyone.