“Watch where you’re pointing that strategy, you’ll have someone’s eye out!”

“People often ask me to define myself – are you an ad agency, a consultancy, an innovation house – but I balk at definitions, they don’t suit me. I’m all of the above and more. And I’m ok with that amorphous shape. And my hope is that other strategists will start to wake up and feel the same.” - Zoe Scaman, Bodacious

“We all find it easier to stay in our comfort zone - it’s not called a comfort zone for nothing. But neither of us wanted the last chapter of our careers to find us sitting with our feet up on the desk eating custard creams.” - Bridget Angear, craig+bridget

Over the last year or two, the rise of independent strategic consultancies has been a really exciting trend in the agency world. Planners and strategists, seeking to separate their skillset from the execution of creative communication, are blazing new paths beyond the typical deliverables of 'advertising'.

It’s made me think a lot about what strategy is, how we use it, and what we point it at.

As someone who is interested in brand strategy and the overall marketing industrial complex, I understand the desire to move upstream and it's been inspiring to see more and more of these agencies crop up.

They not only showcase the brilliance of what strategists with ad agency backgrounds have to offer, but also provide a viable 'third path' away from jumping ship client-side or (God forbid) joining the dark side of the management consultancies…

The narratives of these new consultancies talk about freedom, ‘proper’ problem solving, and being able to collaborate with bold decision makers further up the chain. But I also love the theme of the unknown. A lot of these shops have deliberately left their end product blank, for good reason. After emerging from ad agencies, they would rather evolve and discover what they are capable of, instead of limiting themselves at the outset.

Here are a few exciting shops on my radar, who I will be keeping an eye on in the future:

Bodacious

• The Vision: Embracing mess and uncertainty and applying strategy problem-solving skills at the broadest possible level.

• Key clients: Dallas Mavericks, Luka Doncic, Amazon.

First up is Bodacious, founded by Zoe Scaman. Zoe has trodden an unconventional path in her strategy career and has seemingly worked at every kind of agency under the sun, from search, to media to creative. Now she is working on Bodacious, which she started in 2019 and styles itself as a "strategy studio" (a moniker which I love).

In an interview with Rob from Salmon Theory, Zoe talked about the premise of the strategy studio / consultancy, while capturing the difficult inertia that might prevent someone from moving to one:

"Strategists are problem solvers as their core, and that means you should be able to turn your skills to any challenge. The sooner we divorce ourselves from advertising as the output, the better. But if you work in a place that does only that, I understand that it won’t be easy."

Zoe is really active and vocal in the strategy community, so it’s great to follow her on the journey of her company, from the successes to the anxieties. Recently, she has become a big proponent of NFTs and blockchain technology’s capacity to disrupt the world of brands and media.

craig+bridget

• The Vision: Become the strategic extension of marketing departments.

• Key clients: Former AMV clients

Next, we have craig+bridget, set up by former AMV superstar duo Craig Mawdsley and Bridget Angear. According to one interview, they want to become the "strategic extension of marketing departments".

One interesting reflection Craig had about strategists in ad agencies talked about their function in relation to the creative department and 'the work', the output of the agency:

"I think for many years, we thought we were doing ‘strategy’, but a lot of it was really just creative inspiration. We want to reclaim the potential of proper brand strategy."

Craig and Bridget's vision for moving upstream came from the desire to untether themselves from the deliverable:

"Operating without a creative department to feed, we can address those questions of “how can I grow my brand?”, “how can I find an idea that changes my business, not just my comms?” and “how do I make it all live outside the strategy deck?”."

One reason I love these two so much is their case study from Sainsbury's Try Something New Today campaign, an absolute blinder of strategic majesty. It's the perfect case for talking about agencies getting upstream and piecing business, marketing, and communication goals together. Bridget referenced the campaign when talking talking about the reason for starting craig+bridget:

"We have done some of our best work when we act more as an extension of a client’s marketing team, working alongside them to answer some of those fundamental questions."

Slap Global

• The Vision: Being a business accelerator through creativity

• Clients: Oxygen (global hub for sports learning), Doritos, Ballantine's.

Slap Global is the agency I know the least amount about in this list, but similarly to the other two shops, they define their scope very broadly.

Co-founder Gerry Graf uses a radical reframe to think about the work they aspire to create with Slap Global:

“I’ve said for 14 years, if it’s smart enough, creative enough, everything an agency does is a piece of communication. That hasn’t changed.”

This has some interesting implications for the way we look at brand experience and product development, but it's clear from their capability list on their website that they also use conventional definitions:

• create communication platforms.

• create brands and purposes.

• develop products.

• design brand experiences.

• reformulate the existing businesses.

• create new businesses within the company.

Still in the early days, it seems like Slap Global have continued to create a lot of creative work, but are broadening their remit with brand identity and business model cases too.

Final Thoughts

Exciting times for the world of strategy.

All of the founders of these agencies have a depth of experience and knowledge in the world of advertising and communications, so it will be interesting to see the breadth of things they make moving forward.

The biggest reflection for me in all of this is the reminder that strategy is a discipline that is separate and distinct from the area in which you deploy it. Whether it's business, brand, or communications, strategy in military or sport, there is value in being able to think strategically to overcome the problems you face using the resources and knowledge you have.

While advertising is a great playing field in which to learn strategy, there are so many more applications for it out there that are worthwhile exploring.