#Matte Projects Names Angus MacEwan as Company’s First CMO

Angus MacEwan, the former svp of marketing & US business for High Snobiety, is joining Matte Projects in a newly created CMO role. Now in its 10th year, Matte Projects is a New York-based creative agency and event production company, responsible for a range of entertainment, Hollywood-centric activations, including a recent Macallan James Bond 60th Anniversary celebrations at the infamous John Sowden House and a White Lotus season two event.

This hire is one of a few key executive hires Matte Projects — which was founded in 2013 by Matthew Rowean, Max Pollack, and Brett Kincaid — is expected to make this year, as they expand their in-house roster of talent, client list, and make deeper inroads in creative markets in Los Angeles and Mexico City.

“Matte really started as a consumer-facing brand — we were a boutique events and festival business at our genesis, that almost stumbled into developing a creative studio on the back of that business,” says Morgan Lemonidis, Matte Projects’ CFO. “Bringing on the CMO is really us taking the step forward to really invest in that community.” Part of that investment will be growing revenue and Matte’s business in the live entertainment experiences, media, original content, and product sectors.

In this role, MacEwan says he plans to bring “experience and perspective in regard to how a business shifts into different spaces, all with the view to service its community in new and different ways,” adding: “How do we actually create and future-proof the relationship that we have with the Matte community in New York City and across the globe?”

In 2022, the company says its revenue grew by more than 70 percent, and the employee headcount doubled from 50 to 100.

“In a world where brands are no longer talking about their customers but are now talking about their audiences, it’s more and more important to entertain your audiences. What I love about Matte is that it is really born out of nightlife, entertainment, and music, so there’s something refreshing about the DNA of this company and what brands really need,” MacEwan says. “We’re excited to invest in our roots in New York and take that on a roadshow globally.”

Though the company already does significant business in Los Angeles, Lemonidis says that Matte’s expansion there “is really just kind of formalizing and [putting] boots on the ground there to better service our clients…but also as we are investing in our own original IP and original content, its important to have an actual presence in LA so we can really grow our communities.” Mexico City is a locale she says “we feel has always been a natural second place for Matte,” due to the company’s roots in culture, spanning art, food, and music. “It’s always really fit in with the Matte brand ethos.”

Given his professional background, MacEwan will also be focused on finding a way to incorporate an editorial flair into a company focused on visual and immersive productions. “Usually when you hear the word editorial you think of a platform…a frequency,” he says. “What I’ve observed in the market over the years is that its usually one or two pieces of content that really make a difference on the business side.” This will manifest as the company looking to find ways to collaborate with the creatives in their network to identify emerging trends and the brands driving them.

“The role of editorial at Matte is very much about us having an opinion on what’s coming next,” MacEwan says. “Editorial for us is very light touch but I expect for it to have a huge impact on our business.”

In this 10th year, the new CMO plans to market Matte Projects even more heavily as a consultancy, and shift the company from “showing up as a service provider solely, to showing up as an expert in how we actually interact in our community.”