M&C Saatchi leans into in-housing; launches in-house consultancy Micro Agency
M&C Saatchi has today announced the launch of its new in–house consultancy, Micro Agency. In line with increasing numbers of creative services continuing to be in-housed, Micro Agency addresses a much needed gap in the market by designing and building bespoke in-house and hybrid marketing capabilities for clients, backed by M&C Saatchi.
Micro Agency will be headed up by David Sutherland (pictured above), who up until recently spent five years as general manager of Yes Agency, the in-house collaboration between Optus and Re Group (part of M&C Saatchi).
Says Justin Graham, group CEO of M&C Saatchi Australia: “M&C Saatchi’s market-leading in-house client partnerships have produced great results over the years for some of the country’s most well-known brands. The bespoke approach of Micro’s hybrid offering builds on these learnings, meeting both the changing needs of the market and our clients in realising their unique ambitions. Dave has been at the forefront of that journey and we are all excited to jump into the next chapter with Micro.”
In his new capacity as Micro’s managing director, David Sutherland says: “As more and more businesses search for new engagement models from their agency partners, Micro can help provide the right expertise to assist business leaders in the transition towards in-housing or hybrid agency models.
“With in-housing fast becoming a viable solution for many marketeers’, navigating a seamless path and achieving a smooth transition has become increasingly important. Knowing the right in-house model that suits a company, finding the best talent, plus building the processes and frameworks, can take time and expertise.
“Micro’s bespoke approach is aimed at providing a consultative service for clients to either operationalise creative excellence internally, or build a hybrid offering that can leverage a clients existing agency ecosystem, or the specialist skillsets of M&C Saatchi.”
Micro Agency is already working with Made Group, to help design and build a team of communication specialists, including senior designers and social media managers.
Says Luke Marget, founder and CEO of Made Group: “Micro Agency offers a unique proposition that allows us to build a bespoke team and workflow to handle our creative work, and then leverage the expertise of M&C Saatchi when needed. It gives us the best of both worlds that we couldn’t get with a traditional agency engagement.”
Suitable for a wide range of businesses, from large scale corporates through to smaller start-ups looking to build their optimal in-house model, Micro Agency collaborates with a client to design the team, hires the talent, and puts the processes in place to ensure creativity thrives in the client environment.
To ensure the team stays at the forefront of operational and creative effectiveness, Micro Agency also offers optimisation of existing in-house teams, ongoing team management support, or shorter-term transitional arrangements as clients embed their in-house capability.
5 Comments
So now I can just use the agency as a body shop supplier. No headcount for me, skinny margins for them.
Revenge served cold!
A huge moneymaker for M&C, who slip into big companies and offer cheap, quick work. And once they’re in there that’s it. So tempting for brands to pour all those dollars into the in house cheap option and the work is the same old stock shot stuff.
The purpose of working direct is having a relationship with the client without an agency in the way. Often earning more than they would at an agency, which attracts better, business-minded talent. Once the agency starts scooping their margins off that you’ll end up with a third to two-thirds less going to the creatives, aka shitter talent, and only more opinions to navigate.
Spot. On.
zzzzzzzzzzz