Think Small to Think Big
One Small Step Collective
The basic premise is the same- small groups of talented, senior people grouping up to solve hard problems quickly.
Forbes recently published this article talking about the exodus of senior creative people from big agencies and holding companies. More often than not, these are the people who create some of the world’s most loved and recognised campaigns and they are leaving to start their own, new type of business. They take many shapes but the basic premise is the same- small groups of talented, senior people grouping up to solve hard problems quickly.
It also reflects this hybrid creative professional that’s emerging. Creative people used to only see the clients when they were presenting and sometimes the Planners were the same. Even Media people were asked to ‘stay in their lane’ and wait until it’s time to talk about media (usually a measly ten minutes at the end of the creative meeting).
What we are seeing more and more clients waking up to is creating a nimble SWAT team that comes in and out throughout the process but are knowledgeable all the way through. As a creative, I love talking and bouncing ideas off media people. I also know that the data guys love thinking about how data and technology mean we can talk to more of the right people and how technology can take an idea to another level.
In the end, it’s obviously self serving for us to promote the article as it’s the way our business has been set up for the last six years. Weirdly, that means a lot of the time we occupy the space between agency, consultants and data scientists. It’s sometimes hard to explain, but when people get it, they love it. We’re the best bits of a big agency and we wouldn’t have it any other way.