THINK launch 'virtual agency' as alternative to traditional agencies
Howard Lake | 22 March 2007 | News
Voluntary sector consultancy THINK Consulting Solutions is launching a ‘virtual agency’ to provide clients with an alternative to traditional agencies. It is designed to combine the skills that charities already possess with services provided by THINK and its strategic partners to create a ‘bespoke’ agency for each new project or programme of work.
The virtual agency is led by THINK’s director and creative strategist Derek Humphries.
He believes that “charities need flexibility. There is now much greater expertise among charity clients than there used to be. Many charities just don’t need all the hierarchies and services that come from the standard agency approach.”
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He added: “So the virtual agency puts together a bespoke team for each campaign or project. We plan and deliver the work, but importantly we try to transfer our skills to the client. We don’t tell clients they will need to rely on us for everything for ever.”
One element of traditional client-agency relationships that he wanted to avoid was that “too often, the most experienced agency people are only around for the pitch and the quarterly meeting and spend little time on the day-to-day work.”
All THINK’s consultants will be available for ‘secondment’ to virtual agency projects, each bringing their own expertise.
There are currently two external partners to the virtual agency: TV creative and production company, DTV Group, to form THINK-DTV; and creative communications agency Taylor-McKenzie, which specialises in voluntary sector communications.
THINK has been trialling the virtual agency approach with clients for the past year and is now introducing it on a more formal basis. Current clients include WSPA, Leprosy Mission, Maggie’s Centres, Royal Botanical Gardens Kew, and the School of Oriental and African Studies.
Humphries believes that two types of charity are likely to want to utilise the virtual agency concept. “There will be those charities that are using several agencies in a fragmented way – e.g. one agency for DM, one for online, and another for telephone fundraising – and want to get a strategic overview,” he said.
“Then there will be experienced charities who are looking for a more creative, fast and flexible way of producing communications.”
THINK anticipates working on up to five virtual agency large-scale programmes during 2007. It claims that creative costs are expected to be about 70% of using a traditional agency.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.