Some problems do not need an agency. They need one experienced person in the room for a day, asking the question nobody internal can ask without it becoming political.
That is what this is. Not a retainer you cannot leave, and not a junior team learning on your budget. Engagements are built around your project rather than our org chart, and they come in three shapes.
A sprint
When something specific is stuck: a launch that is not converting, a rebrand that has stalled, a channel that used to work. Fixed scope, fixed length, a decision at the end.
A retainer
When you have a capable team that is missing seniority: a standing outside review of the work, the numbers and the direction, at whatever rhythm suits — weekly during a launch, monthly the rest of the year.
Embedded support
When you are building something large and want the experience without the headcount. We have done this at scale: the full redesign of VEB.RF’s digital flagship, Russia’s national development institution, meant 130 page templates, two language versions and consolidating twenty-plus news systems into one. Mercury Marine’s Russian office needed a site plus always-on digital support, and the result won a Golden Site award. Hyundai Yaroslavl needed an audit before a redesign, not after — live inventory, credit calculator and test-drive booking in one flow that actually converts.
What you get is judgement, and the willingness to use it. If the honest answer is that your problem is not marketing, we will say so — that has happened, and it saved the client more than the engagement cost.
Frequently asked questions
How is this different from hiring an agency?
Scope and seniority. An agency sells you a team and a retainer; this is one experienced person on a defined problem, with the standing to say what nobody internal can say without it becoming political. There is no account-management layer, because there is nothing to manage.
What size of engagement makes sense?
Three shapes, chosen by the problem rather than by our org chart. A sprint when something specific is stuck — fixed scope, fixed length, a decision at the end. A retainer when a capable team is missing seniority, at whatever rhythm suits: weekly through a launch, monthly the rest of the year. Embedded support when you are building something large and want the experience without the headcount.
What if our problem turns out not to be marketing?
We will say so. That has happened, and it saved the client more than the engagement cost. A consultant who can only find problems inside their own specialism is not selling you judgement, they are selling you a quote.
Can you work alongside our existing agency?
Yes, and it is a common arrangement — the review sits beside the people doing the work rather than replacing them. What makes it useful is that an outside view has no stake in defending last quarter’s plan. What makes it fail is being used as ammunition in an internal argument, and we flag that early rather than discovering it in month three.