Are indies changing the balance of power in the business of advertising? They’re certainly offering something less-layered, less-cumbersome, often braver and fiercely entrepreneurial. Some indies are well on their way to becoming established networks. Amsterdam’s Chaos x Magic is a newer indie, just two years old. It epitomises the indie spirit: “There’s an old line from Hollywood: nobody knows anything. We believe that completely. No formula, no playbook, no agency that’s fully cracked it, including us. But we hold that next to a creative bar we refuse to lower.” Chaos x Magic was founded in 2024 by co-CCOs, Nils-Petter Lövgren and Zack McDonald. The duo took The Stable behind the scenes of their agency and what it takes to build indie freedom.

The Stable: Why did Zack McDonald & Nils-Petter Lövgren co-found Chaos x Magic?

NP: The industry was going through big changes, and Zack and I were just trying to have some fun on a freelance gig together. We succeeded. So we started talking about doing something more defined. Then Absolut came with a request that went beyond the scope of just us two, and we realised we could be an agency. Maybe we already were. We weren’t interested in recreating the traditional model, though. We wanted something smaller, more adaptable, and built around the work. Clients increasingly care less about agency size and more about access to the people making the work. 

Zack: It’s true, an agency is nothing more than the people who make it up. Every agency that closes its doors proves it. The buildings and brands go, the people carry on. Looking back, I realise now how lucky I’ve been in my career. At every single place I’ve worked, I got to work with and learn from some of the best to ever do this. At the time they were just my weird pals or office frenemies, but now I can see them for the brilliant people they were. And still are. We work with quite a few of them, and hopefully will get to with even more. I know Nils-Petter has had a similar feeling. So, I guess Chaos x Magic is our attempt to build a place worthy of the people we’ve met along the way. A place where creativity can show up in whatever form it wants to.

The Stable: What makes your agency stand out?

NP: Our curiosity and willingness to shape and adapt to the ask. How we work with our different clients can be very different. It comes from us founders being open to trying new ways and also being confident that something good will come out of uncertainty and the unknown. I guess the belief that chaos is a good thing really, the catalyst for magic.

Zack: There’s an old line from Hollywood: nobody knows anything. We believe that completely. No formula, no playbook, no agency that’s fully cracked it, including us. But we hold that next to a creative bar we refuse to lower. That mix pretty much sums us up. Humility keeps us curious and stops us from forcing work into shapes it shouldn’t have. The drive for creative excellence stops us from ever settling for good enough. You need both.

The Stable: Indie life isn’t always easy. What have you conquered to get to where you are. What do you still want to conquer?

NP: We have been super lucky to have had incoming calls and projects from the LEGO brand, Absolut and IKEA since our start. Maybe spoiled even. So the challenge is really now to keep building on the momentum and be able to grow creatively over the next few years. Luckily, we’ve recently brought in Zaida Vázquez as head of brand & business growth to help us build that next chapter thoughtfully.

Zack: When you start something new, there’s a chorus of voices telling you that you can’t do this, you shouldn’t even try. Some are in your own head. Some are unfortunately quite real. Conquering those voices is the real work of going independent. It gets much easier when you’re surrounded by genuine friends you can challenge and be challenged by. Everyone at CxM believes in the mission, the team, the clients, and each other. The voices never fully go away. They just get quieter than the work. As for what’s next: keeping the bar this high while we grow.

The Stable: What is the greatest work each of you has done in your careers and why? (Cadbury Eyebrows is awesome) What are you most proud of?

NP: haha, yeah Eyebrows always comes up. It was a great experience to make something that connected so viscerally with culture. Hearing people at the pub talk about it, taxi drivers telling you about it and at the time everyone having it as their ringtone. Wild. Back then, I actually spoke more about the For the Love of Wispa campaign as it tapped into something different. Now we all talk about fandom. That word didn’t really exist then, but the campaign was really built around it. As for something more recent, the work we did now for IKEA is something I’m super proud of, since the brief was so complex with having to figure out a way to speak about sustainability for them in a way that would work across all their markets. But the end result was very simple, nice films and posters. 

Zack: My first agency, KesselsKramer, just closed its doors, so it feels fitting to pick a favourite from back then, for quite possibly the best client in advertising history, the Hans Brinker Budget Hotel. For the first campaign I worked on, we skipped the ads and posters that had worked for years and spent the entire budget on making a travel book about the worst hotel in the world. It pulled loads of international press for a ratty Amsterdam hostel and was one of the first campaigns I remember an audience actually paying for. The irony – the book cost more than a room. And somehow, it’s still going. I spotted it in an Italian bookstore recently. Not bad ROI.

But honestly, I’m always in love with the latest thing we finished. Right now that’s the World Play Day work with Jason Momoa that we made in partnership with Our LEGO Agency. His first line on the shoot was, “Because I’m the playmaker”. I still get the chills and the giggles when I hear it. It’s powerful and hilarious at once, and that’s the work we want to make – the kind you can’t tell if you should frame or laugh at. Ideally both.