Clemenger, Emotive and McCann alumni launch REALMS

Former agency executives Rhian Mason and Elly Brand have launched REALMS, an independent consultancy that helps brands connect specialist teams around a single cultural strategy.

The consultancy will work across brand teams, agencies, and integrated agency groups, focusing on turning cultural intelligence into coordinated activity across social, earned media, creators, content, and partnerships.

REALMS will remain independent and senior-led, with Mason and Brand positioning the business as an operating model that connects existing capabilities rather than replacing specialist partners.

Connecting specialist teams

Mason said increasing specialisation across marketing had created a disconnect between teams operating across different disciplines and channels.

“Most organisations don’t have a capability problem. They have a connection problem,” said REALMS co-founder Rhian Mason. “The opportunity isn’t to undo specialisation. It’s to connect it around the same cultural opportunity, rather than producing separate discipline and channel plans.”

REALMS will work with existing brand and agency teams to develop a shared cultural strategy that can inform creative briefs, social ecosystems, creator partnerships, earned media, media opportunities and brand experiences.

Its tools translate cultural signals into strategies, briefs, and ideas rather than standalone trend reports.

Senior agency experience

Mason and Brand bring more than 25 years of combined industry experience.

Mason has held senior leadership roles at M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment, Clemenger BBDO and Emotive, while Brand has worked at McCann and TEDxSydney.

Their combined client experience includes Google, Amazon, CommBank, LEGO, eBay, Mastercard, Microsoft, Hyundai and L’Oréal.

Brand said the way companies appointed social media leaders reflected a wider structural problem across marketing teams.

“We keep hiring ‘culture-obsessed’ social leads, then bringing them into the process after the big decisions have already been made,” Brand said. “One person is expected to span cultural strategy, community, creators, platforms, paid amplification and content, while somehow championing culture across the organisation.”

“You can’t retrofit cultural relevance at the end. If culture matters to the brand, it has to shape creative, media, earned, creators, partnerships and social from the beginning. Culture should be a shared responsibility, not a final layer applied by social.”