Meet Motel: Built on a phone call and the confidence to build

Ben Mulligan was 21, still in college, and working as a brand ambassador for an agency. Frustrated by some of the agency’s limitations, he felt he could do a better job. Years later, he reflects on that as ‘perhaps being naively optimistic’. 

He got close to a client he was working with, who was overseeing a major drinks brand. One day over coffee, she told him she'd had enough of the agency she was using. Ben, without really thinking it through, told her he'd sort her out with the staff. Well, how hard could it be?

She rang him a few months later. There was a gig in September for a big corporation, and they'd need to be fully set up and operational. If he could deliver that, she was in.

Ben called his friend Rob Gibbons, and that was that. Two young men who backed themselves and built something of their own.

Their own admission: they lost the first couple of years juggling college and other priorities, but by 2015, they’d got serious and started building something they could be proud of.

They began by providing staff. But at every event, they’d watch other companies design and build the physical structures around them, and they decided they wanted to offer that themselves. So they built out a design team and started outsourcing construction. Before long, they were doing the whole thing in-house: design, build, everything. They weren't just providing staff anymore. They were delivering the full experience.

They operated as Platinum Promotions until early 2023, before rebranding as Motel, a brand experience agency.

2016 to 2020 were great years for the business. However, in 2020, live events came to an abrupt halt. No one could have seen that coming, but Ben and Rob rebuilt and kept going.

Motel now handles the full picture: design, production, warehousing, logistics, staffing, and live brand activation from strategy deck to execution.

Their growth has been organic, built on relationships and reputation. Now they’re ready to take it to the next level by joining Unusual.

Our partners receive support to become buyer-ready, hands-on operational guidance, and, where appropriate, access to capital to fuel their growth.

We work with agency founders across the globe. If you run an agency and you're curious about what that looks like, get in touch.

Welcome to the collective, Motel.