Mammoth Stampede: The Agency Stepping Out for Us

James never intended it to be like this. He was all set on a career in academe.  A PhD student and Eng Lit lecturer, he’d written a book on 19th century Bohemianism, for heaven’s sake. But now here he was alone, snatched from home at 3am, being driven down dark country lanes by a silent chauffeur to a destination unknown. “It was quite scary really. Even the driver seemed scary. Like a scene out of The Sopranos.”

All of which explains why we love Mammoth. “We” being the charity Stepping Out with Carers and“Mammoth” being the Creative Agency that has done so much to create our look, build our website and vastly widen our impact. We love their verve, ingenuity and attention to detail, all of which were demonstrated in spades by Stew andChris the night they kidnapped James to Budapest for his Stag Do.

It’s this same verve and ingenuity that has inspired their plan to take a group day off on May 17th to compete in “the Colchester Stampede”, a 10k sponsored run that starts and finishes at Colchester Zoo — and they are doing it in aid of Stepping Out. First of all, we cannot thank them enough for their generosity and secondly, we have to bring you their own description of the occasion.  

“3 new dads, one 10k, a combined total of about 4hours sleep between us since November.”‍

What do they mean? James explains the maths. Since Mammoth’s foundation in 2020 a number of extraneous events have occurred: among the team of three, they’ve had two weddings, one engagement, two stag dos, one to come (Chris has every right to be fearful), five babies (the last THREE in successive months last winter). If they ever had a business plan, bet those details weren’t in it. “It was too big an upheaval for any strategy to tide us over. It’s been really tough actually.”But remember the verve, they have survived just fine.

It helps, perhaps, that Stepping Out has always been close to all of their hearts. All three directors have family connections to caring. They came to The Big StepOut in 2024 not as agency people doing a job, but as people invested in the cause. This year, they're working pro bono.

"It has always been our shared favourite project," says James. "We just love seeing the people on a Stepping Out walk getting together, smiling, relieved to be in a crowd of people who understand how it feels."

Everything Mammoth created for Stepping Out and The Big Step Out was built around a single idea: The First Step. Designed to make you feel that whatever your pace, whatever your situation, this is somewhere you belong. The work was recognised by the World Brand Design Society, featured alongside leading agencies from around the world. Mammoth also built our website, including a custom step tracker developed over several sleepless nights (sorry Stew!), which has helped power The Big Step Out in recent years and earn Mammoth a place in the Ambitious Essex Tech 50.

Most recently, the team has been working on CarersLives in 100 Objects, an online exhibition and archive that tells the stories of unpaid carers through significant personal items. “Reading those stories really brought it home, why we step out.”

It was Stewart who first ran for us, raising £864 last year. This time, he has roped in his colleagues. Chris is the least experienced of the trio and, apparently, has a sort of floundering running style that reminds the others of ET. Nevertheless, we back them to make it, whatever the distractions of aardvarks and elephants along the way.

You can sponsor their stampede here:
www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/mammothsteppingout

And if you like what you see and think Mammoth might be the creative partner your organisation needs, you can find them at mmmth.co.uk.

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