Richard Carr/Tony Singleton Sydney start-up Mr Wolf offers to give underdog brands a bigger bite – will use crowd-sourcing model for creative
Underdog brands have a new champion today after the launch of Mr. Wolf – a new independent creative agency – which focuses on helping them take on the big guys.
Mr. Wolf is a strategy-led agency that combines the latest techniques in behavioural science, a crowd-sourcing model for creative and the offer of real ‘skin-in-the-game’ to turn the odds in the favour of underdog brands.
“Underdog brands was a natural choice for us,” says managing partner, Richard Carr (above left) the former GM at JWT and Ogilvy. “We have great experience in them, you can create a real and tangible impact on their business and they generally recognise that creative thinking is the only way to win”.
“When you work with Underdog brands you’re forced to be more inventive” says managing partner/head of strategy, Tony Singleton (above right), the former MD/head of strategy at Arnold Furnace. “You can’t afford the lazy conventional approach and achieving more with less is a simple business necessity – I love the challenge this creates.”
Through research, the agency identified three consistent issues for Underdog brand owners: The need to take risks without the luxury of budgets that allow for failure; Being able to afford the right brains – and enough of them – to think about their business; Finding creative partners who were willing to commit to their business as much as they do.
“We built our agency model specifically to address these issued,” says Carr. “In a market of largely undifferentiated agency offerings, we think it really sets us apart.
“One: Strategy first. Always,” says Carr. “Strategy is king and is the core of the agency offering. All other functions are deliberately hosted outside. Whilst all of the disciplines work collaboratively, every team needs a captain. This is how we maintain a strict agenda of effectiveness.
“Two: The right brains at the right time. Creative development is managed through a hybrid crowd-sourcing model. We’ve built a select network of local and global collaborators across all disciplines. From mobile to shopper and everything inbetween. This elastic model keeps the process agile and ensures our clients aren’t paying higher fees to carry an unnecessary overhead.”
“Three: Reduce the risk of risk-taking,” adds Singleton. “The agency applies the latest proven techniques from behavioural and decision science to lead the creative process. In recent times, there have been some seismic shifts in our understanding of how the brain makes decisions. Yet few agencies, or clients, appear to be utilising this competitive advantage. Our understanding of these models is crucial in us reducing the risk associated with risk-taking. Nothing’s perfect, but it’s more accurate than ever before.”
“Four: Putting real skin-in-the-game. “Everything changes when you have a stake in a business’ success – you approach things differently, you care about it more and you make different decisions. We like to back ourselves and link our destiny to the success of our clients. And not by the usual token 10% – we put real skin-in-the-game” said Singleton.
Contact richard.carr@mrwolfinc.com.au or visit mrwolfinc.com.au to find out more.
11 Comments
Nice one Lord Carr. Best of luck and beers soon?
Best of luck, but what’s your “hybrid crowd-sourcing model”, a freelancer.com bookmark?
Smart guys both of them. I’m sure they’ll do well.
The biggest motivator to make any sale is still irrational – it’s emotional.
With all this ‘Science’ and ‘effective’ focus, have you not perhaps forgotten the main driver?
There is a reason why most famous advertising agencies have been founded by creative people.
Great to see more startups in this game. Don’t know the guys, but all the best regardless.
Hi Ben,
Not quite just a bookmark – although for a while we were looking at it and we did try out a pure crowd sourcing approach for a project. Thankfully for all of us who don’t want to have to compete with third world wages, you quickly realise that you don’t actually want lots of ideas, you want a few great ideas.
Besides, I’ve always tried to be a supporter of great creative thinking (sometimes more successfully than others!) and pure crowd sourcing doesn’t seem to be giving creative people their due respect. Therefore we’ve created a slightly different approach that still employs crowd-sourcing principles, but in a slightly different way – hence the ‘hybrid’.
If you’re really interested, drop me a line at tony.singleton@mrwolfinc.com.au
Great stuff Dicko!
Best of luck with it all. Hope you smash it.
Good stuff Dicky.
Ofcourse decision making is emotional.
Behavioural science is the first to acknowledge that.
I’m guessing any new models they’re using will provide more depth than “hey, the brain makes decisions based on emotion”.
Hey Behavioural Science,
Really interesting, because it hadn’t occurred to me that what we’d said would be interpreted as anti-emotional. In fact, all the evidence and science you don’t seem to like actually supports your irrational/emotional decision making point.
The IPA in the UK published a great report “The Long and Short of It” that shows how much more effective emotional only campaigns are versus rational only or in fact combined emotional and rational campaigns (you have to be slightly careful because I think the report originally started at Thinkbox – the equivalent of Free TV here – and it rather handily supports TV advertising).
And if you follow Daniel Kahneman’s nobel prize winning “System 1 and System 2” thinking, then talking to the cognitive (rational) mind is probably akin to talking to the monkey rather than the organ grinder.
As for agencies, I’m sure that there will be many more great agencies founded by creative people. But equally, hopefully there is a little room for some diversity and different ways in.
Cheers T
Well done Rich!! So happy for you!