Today’s edition of The Unmakers features adland royalty Justin Drape and Michael Canning, co-founders of travel platform Exceptional Alien. This month, they stepped back into the brand space with the brand-focused Exceptional Alien Studio.

Welcome to the latest episode of The Unmakers, Unmade’s podcast series where we talk to the people remaking the media and marketing world. 

Today’s interview features Justin Drape and Michael Canning.

In business terms, Drape has been one of the most accomplished creatives Australia has seen in recent years. He was was co-founder of creative agency The Monkeys, arguably Australia’s most successful creative agency startup of the last two decades. It was sold to Accenture for a $63m back in 2017.

Meanwhile, Canning has held a string of creative leadership roles at some of the best known agency networks, including M&C Saatchi in Australia, along with Leo Burnett and 72&Sunny in the US.

Two years ago, the duo swapped the agency world for publishing when they launched Exceptional Alien as a series of app-first local travel guides, fronted by celebrated creators.

The new Exceptional Agency Studio will see Drape and Canning offer their talents to marketers, not just creating content for brands on the Exceptional Alien platform, but helping with bigger brand challenges. Essentially, they’re back in the agency business.

Exceptional Alien is already building. “I think that we’re scaling, and I think success for Exceptional Alien will be an international audience that we’re already growing. That’s what we’re aiming for. We have team members in LA and New York. We have a lot of interest in partnerships that will be announced soon,” Drape says.

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Today's episode of The Unmakers was edited by Abe's audio and produced by Seja Al Zaidi.

Audio production was courtesy of Abe’s Audio, the people to talk to about voiceovers, sound design and podcast production.

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