Madeline Meade and Rachel Brandt Have the Best Seat in the House

It’s the restaurant table everyone wants but rarely gets – the quiet corner with the perfect view and just the right energy. The best seat in the house.

And it’s the feeling that inspired the name for Corner Table Creative, the New York City agency founded in 2023 by Madeline Meade and Rachel Brandt. More than a metaphor, it was a model for how an agency could run: with care and attention.

As Rachel and Madeline began mapping out what an agency of their own could look and feel like, they found themselves coming back to the idea of what it really means to feel taken care of – the definition of hospitality.

Rachel recalls how a shared inspiration became a foundational moment. “We both happened to be watching The Bear, and then reading Unreasonable Hospitality, while we were dreaming up Corner Table Creative. I think for me, seeing the ‘Every Second Counts’ sign in the kitchen was an inspiring reminder of what we can achieve when harnessing our energy and ambition to deliver for our clients.”

For Madeline, it's moments like her local barista asking if she’ll have ‘the usual’ with a warm smile or, like Unreasonable Hospitality recounts, the team at Eleven Madison Park sprinting to a food stand and pristinely plating a hot dog after overhearing that a family hadn’t had the chance to try one before they leave New York. “It’s in moments like these that a memorable connection is made from feeling seen, heard, and valued,” she says.

Madeline adds that while the work matters, the experience matters just as much. “A lot of agencies are known for doing great work. And of course, we want to be known for that too. But just as much, we want to be known for how we make people feel. That’s why we went all in on a hospitality-inspired approach. While other indies (whom we adore!) go all in on raging against the machine, we’re inviting everyone to join us at the table.”

From Colleagues to Co-Founders

Rachel and Madeline met at Code3 in 2019 and have worked together since. Before they left to launch Corner Table Creative, Rachel was head of Code3 creative and Madeline was director, creative strategy. They identified a “gaping hole” in performance and brand-driving content creation and felt they were poised to bring new, creative, cost-effective and time-saving methods to the industry. They were also driven by a desire to mentor future creatives, especially women, and play a role in changing the stat that only 1% of creative agencies are female-owned.

“We saw the value in doing things differently, and launching our own shop was a way to protect that,” says Rachel. “In true Madeline and Rachel fashion, there wasn’t much time between when we were dreaming about it and when we were doing it. There will always be doubts when you’re starting something new, but fortunately we decided the best way to know if it would work would be to do it (which happens to also be advice we share with our clients about content – put it out there and see!).”

A key factor in the hiring and working practices of Corner Table is hybridity, with creative strategy at the centre of all work. The creative strategy team has skill sets across strategy, client services, production, creative, and oversees work from initial client conversations through to creative direction, which allows the team to get from brief to output in a matter of days. This model, say Rachel and Madeline, creates an ecosystem that is accountable to results.

“I remember early in my career I was told that my job as an account executive was to sell the work – whatever the creative team came up with,” says Rachel. “That never felt okay to me, and definitely influences how we’ve structured the team at Corner Table Creative.”

Straight out of school, Madeline joined a media agency as its third hire and quickly became instrumental in shaping its creative arm – doubling revenue, building a 25-person team and expanding services with little attrition.

Now, she’s applied these learnings to Corner Table. “By fostering multi-skilled talent and eliminating silos, we’ve positioned creative strategy at the agency’s core,” says Madeline. “Digitally native strategists work closely with clients to shape briefs, concepts, and creative direction – then seamlessly hand it to design to execute within days. This speed allows brands to keep up with today’s content demands without compromising creativity. Employees don’t have to compromise either, finding fulfilment in shaping work from start to finish.

“It’s not about one moment or idea,” adds Rachel. “It’s about the delivery of those ideas every day to drive performance.”

Success, Served With Care

That model is already paying off.

Corner Table exceeded its year one forecast by three times and is on track to double that growth in year two. The agency secured and retained 16 clients in its first year, ranging from Fortune 500 companies, including Marriott International and NBCUniversal, to disruptor favourites like Sweetgreen and ResortPass. Five new clients – Hone Health, Allbirds, Kindred, Ollie Dog Food, and Stripes Beauty – have been secured in 2025, and they recently moved into their first office in New York City. Nearly all new business has come from client and partner referrals.

“It definitely hasn’t been all roses,” adds Rachel, honestly. “Losing our first client was a reminder of the reality of the business – and looking at it objectively, I think it’s because we took on too much too soon.”

Corner Table excels at social content creation and its connection to performance – organic, paid, influencer, testing frameworks and creator productions. “Our team is activating on social platforms every day,” says Rachel. “We know the algorithms, best practices, unit types, and how to optimise for impact.”

These results are evident across the agency’s client base. Take Sweetgreen, for example — a brand for which the agency handles both paid media and creative. The team is optimising assets every week based on performance – ultimately driving 200% net-new reach at strong frequency levels, with higher ROAS on a lower budget – and a 60% improvement in completed view rate.

For TALEA Beer Co. they capture and deliver organic social content on a weekly basis. Since partnering, they’re seeing four times engagement rates, a 46% increase in accounts reached and a 13.6% increase in profile visits.

“We all know that funnel slide that we’ve seen in every deck for years, but how we think about creative across stages of the funnel has evolved,” says Rachel. “Yes, I may see an OOH board and become aware of a brand, but I may also see an OOH board with a really delicious salad right outside of Sweetgreen and in that moment decide that’s what I want for lunch.

“We are both building the brand and converting a customer with the same content. ‘Performance creative’ can sometimes be misunderstood as less creative, interesting, or entertaining, but maybe we need to open the aperture and think of all creative as ‘performance creative’.”

What’s more, Corner Table just hired its first director of media solutions. With an eye to further expanding the agency’s media capabilities, Madeline and Rachel are keen to ensure that they’re fully delivering on their belief that media and creative work best when planned and executed together.

Long term, they want to “uplevel” client expectations of agency partnerships. “We want to be the new standard – one of excellence – that pushes our industry and excels impact for our clients,” says Rachel.

“We want to see more women-owned agencies and leaders. And we want to build meaningful connections and continue delivering on that mission at scale.”
And, of course, to make every client feel like they’re sitting at the best seat in the house.

​Read more US company deep dives here.​

​Read more from Addison Capper here.​