As the former chief creative officer for Bai and Crook & Marker, marketing creative Chad Portas has had a longstanding working relationship with entrepreneur Ben Weiss, who founded both brands. Now, the duo are partnering once again to launch Substratum, a New Jersey-based advertising agency and venture capital platform.
According to Portas, Substratum aims to operate similarly to firms like CAVU Ventures, which also provides creative and marketing support to its portfolio CPG brands. There have also been several smaller examples of the combination creative and investment model which have launched in recent years, including early stage consumer VCs Room 9 and Bullish, both based in New York.
“Ben and I have been in the dirt, we’ve been through ‘day one’ a few times now, and we know it really does take that hustle and that grit and rolling up the sleeves to build a lasting brand,” Portas said. “So we’re not just looking at it through the lens of checks and servicing through marketing and creativity, but really partnering with the brands and making sure that they see two, three, four years ahead to set them up for success.”
The co-founders are joined by former Bai VP of marketing Daniel Goodfellow as a managing partner. Goodfellow served as Crook & Marker’s CMO from 2019 until last month and is based in Sydney, Australia.
Portas began his career as a designer and art director in the early 2000s and held a number of creative positions at various agencies before joining Bai as its in-house chief creative officer in 2014, leading campaigns such as the brand’s 2017 Super Bowl commercial featuring entertainers Justin Timberlake and Christopher Walken. Portas later became Head of Creative for Bai acquirer Keurig Dr Pepper (KDP) in 2018, and he has since held the CCO title at Weiss’ spirits brand Crook & Marker and, most recently, Super Coffee.
Portas had always intended to return to the agency side of the business with his brand side experience, so launching his own ad agency, he said, was a natural next step.
“[Weiss’s] gift is the ability to guide young entrepreneurs and just look for that red tape and those obstacles and help them navigate the world of modern day investment capital,” he said. “My role is more about leveraging creativity as a tool, and working with founders and marketing leaders to leverage the power of design and ideas and turn unconventional thinking into a real competitive advantage.”
Substratum will aim to be a “24 hour creative hotline” with strong client relationships, he added, suggesting “a chief marketing officer who wakes up at two in the morning and has an idea, he or she can call me and I’ll answer the phone and I will brainstorm with them.”
In both its creative offerings and investment arm Substratum will focus on working with next gen, better-for-you brands across categories and industries. Portas said many of the firm’s early partners are likely to be within the CPG sector since he and Weiss have large networks and experience in the space, but they hope to expand the scope to other industries as well.
Now, Substratum is preparing for the launch of its first national campaign today with a TV commercial for Weiss’s Crook & Marker’s canned cocktail line featuring musician Zac Brown. The 60-second video will be posted to Brown’s Instagram page at 3:33 p.m. Eastern this afternoon and marks the start of a summer advertising campaign that will also include in-store promotions, Portas said. The commercial will enter rotation on streaming services including Hulu, YouTube, Roku and Apple TV+.
Aside from Crook & Marker, Substratum has also brought on multivitamin dog chew brand Dog is Human, which Weiss is invested in, for its creative services, Portas added.
“[We want] startups who value the power of creativity, but at the same time they’re looking for investment partners who don’t just want to write a check, disappear, and knock on the door two years later,” Portas said. “It’s for folks who want to be actively involved in guidance and mentorship, and having folks like Ben, who has built multiple brands now, to help them along the way and be a resource for young startups and young entrepreneurs.”