Former Havas Leaders Launch New Agency CAPE

In early 2024, industry veterans Casey Ritts and Pete Gosselin founded CAPE, a full-service creative agency based in New York City, “aiming to change the course of great companies.”

After a year of strategic development and quiet growth, the company is now launching publicly with a 25-strong team, an established client roster, and a philosophy that integrates how these clients and their own talent work – all to affect real change.

CAPE was borne from a decade-long partnership between Casey and Pete, starting at Havas in New York, where they first met and ultimately became MD and ECD, respectively. “We ran the largest account in North America and Pete was brought in as a hot new creative hire to help us push the work at a critical moment for the brand,” says Casey. “But even back then he had a bigger vision for where we, and the work, could go.”

“When I met Casey, he showed me how he really wanted to build something,” adds Pete. “He looked down the field, toward a bigger picture and it was the first time I’d encountered that, something I think everyone felt too.”

An instant match, the pair worked in lock step to grow the account and create award-winning work, only enhancing their desire to create something of their own.

“We wanted to be the agency we always were, but we couldn’t do it without independence. In a way, we had been running an agency within an agency, so it was sort of a testing ground for how we landed with CAPE,” explains Casey. “It was a five-year conversation that once the stars aligned for us, it only took a day to shake hands, talk to our families and pull the trigger. We started the next morning.”

“We did it because we realised we could do what we do at speed and at scale,” adds Pete. “The aim was, and is, to give people the chance to do great work, be supported, and above all, do right by our clients.”

One aspect that sets this new venture apart is CAPE’s ‘Bravely Smart’ approach, which bridges the gap between brand and performance marketing. Integrating craft, culture, insights and data, the system captures the “magic” of strong strategic work combined with Pete’s creative bravery.

^{Above: Pete Gosselin, co-founder and CCO at CAPE}​

“Pete’s that rare creative that can take sound strategic thinking and really deliver a bold creative approach no matter the format,” says Casey. “I love to embarrass Pete by calling him a ‘once in a generation talent’. He hates it, but it’s true. I’ve never met another one like Pete. He’s a mad scientist.”

“Stop it Casey… Don’t stop it,” jokes Pete. “When I have a challenge or a brief, I try not to assume to know the solution. I find that the data and the strategy typically point me in a direction that other creatives don’t go.”

And brands have already bought into this philosophy, with CAPE having grown a deep list of clients from former relationships and referrals, including the likes of BetMGM, Prudential and TradeStation – the latter of which has named them creative AOR.

“We’re so grateful for the opportunity to work with them and foster that brand,” says Casey. “And with Prudential and BetMGM we have such great opportunities in progress. There are more we’re excited to talk about soon.” Pete adds, “The brands are incredible. And, our past relationships have really been advocates for us. Whether it’s an introduction, a project or a platform for something bigger. If you guys can hear us. Thank you!”

^{​Above: Casey Ritts, co-founder and CEO at CAPE}​

It’s not just former clients they’re working with, either. Over the last year, CAPE has built out a team of around 25 talents, many of whom they’ve collaborated with before. According to them, this is testament to the strong culture and connections they’ve built together. “There’s Mimi Powell, Angela Li, Rich Notarianni, Alec Kennedy, Nick Novich, Nat Chan, Manesh Upadhyaya, and that’s just a slice of the remarkable people we’re lucky to work with,” says Pete. “And that’s not all – soon we’ll welcome even more talent to our already outstanding team. It’s truly incredible.”

For Casey, “the beauty of being independent” is that they now get to set the working arrangements, allowing them to adapt to the unique needs of each team member - whether that’s working parents, remote workers, part-timers, freelancers or fractional workers. “Those are all just different descriptions for the diversity of our lives,” he says. “It doesn’t really matter to us as long as we can service our clients' needs. That’s the kicker, it means our clients have access to talent that otherwise wouldn’t fit into other agency boxes. So we’re lean, flexible and efficient with incredible talent.”

The aforementioned Mimi Powell, CAPE’s managing director, is a hire they’re particularly proud of. A long-time collaborator with 15 years of muscle memory working together and a shared vision, Casey made the trip upstate for a campfire chat to convince her to join after some family time away. Needless to say, it was successful. “The following week Mimi was already making CAPE a better agency. Her depth of experience and operational mastery allowed us to scale CAPE to more quickly and deeply service our clients.”

^{Above: Mimi Powell, MD at CAPE}

Having grown organically and by word of mouth between industry friends, Casey and Pete decided it was finally time to launch CAPE publicly as they approached the company’s first anniversary. “We just wanted to update our LinkedIn,” jokes Pete.

“Yeah, it’s just time we updated people on what we’re up to,” says Casey. “Word of mouth around us is really strong, and when people go to our site, or our LinkedIn, it was time we made it official… we’re just going to keep growing from here.”

Pete adds, “We want to be the agency that can change the course of great companies, so that takes a while to prove out, we are in it for the long-haul. So, momentum for us isn’t just talkability, it’s proof.”

To achieve these trajectory-altering results for clients, the CAPE team is set on approaching each brand and opportunity with a different lens – relying in part on Pete, Casey and Mimi’s combined experience, but never assuming they know everything. “That’s precisely what’s wrong with the industry today,” says Pete. “So many agencies are trying to sell a one-size-fits-all approach to clients. To deliver at such a huge scale or overly specialise on one specific thing that they’ve abandoned what makes our business so powerful.”

Casey explains that the first thing CAPE does is to fully immerse themselves in clients’ worlds, finding out what makes them tick and designing around that. “We’re not trying to hit some number for the quarter, we’re not playing musical chairs. If we’re doing it right, our team becomes an extension of our clients’ team.”

“If we do this right,” adds Pete, “people will look back on this in 25, 50, maybe even 100 years and say ‘you know, that’s what agencies were always supposed to do, always supposed to be’.

“So here we are, aiming to change the course of great companies.”