F*ck it, we can do this better ourselves

When Aaron and I started Ourselves in March 2019 we wanted to change the agency blueprint.

After working with some of the world’s most exciting brands in global agency networks we got to board level and found out just how little of a client’s budget went on actual creativity. As low as 16% in some cases.

We realised that many of the business decisions made by those agencies were in support of an operating model that was struggling. Struggling to offer the quality, flexibility and dare we say it, value that clients were seeking. Struggling to fit the modern business world in terms of supporting both an environmental and people focussed agenda. And struggling to offer the flexibility that creative people needed to make their best work.

Big ideas seemed like small print on the agenda. This left us feeling a bit empty, but it also lit a fire.

We looked at each other and said,

So Ourselves began with these three aims:

— For our brand and business partners, we’d make ‘big ideas’ the hero and flip the norm by putting 80% of their budget into creative work.

— For our people, we’d structure the team and processes to a new blueprint that allowed them to build the creative work-life balance they needed.

— For the planet, we’d support social and environmental projects that mattered to us.

We knew we wanted to use our new blueprint to make work for businesses that — like us — challenge the status quo in their area of expertise, for the better and for the future.

Businesses with purpose. Businesses that are prepared to sit outside the ‘rules’. Businesses worth more than the sum of their bank account. Businesses that blend having a positive impact on the world with being financially successful. Outliers whose original approach drives success against the norm, and the old models.

In an uncertain world, ‘normal’ certainly won’t win. This is the age of the outlier.

And our mission is to get outlier brands the attention they deserve.