Another entrepreneurial move from Mother, which has seen the global shift in freelancing and found a way to embrace it. The agency has invested in Small World, a business that puts together advertising and marketing talent with client briefs and projects.
Small World was set up by Dan Salkey (formerly in-house at Adidas) and Harvey Austin (formerly client lead at Dark Horses). The duo is already working with clients including Converse, LinkedIn and OnlyFans, bringing together specialist teams to work on individual briefs.
The idea is that brands have always had briefs that don’t match – or even call for – agency relationships, while changing global working practices have resulted in a much bigger pool of talented freelancers. Many agencies’ knee-jerk reaction is to claim they can do everything, but Small World (and Mother)’s alternative is to offer a kind of bespoke in-house agency as a solution.
Salkey and Austin, founders of Small World said: “There will always be a place for the very best full-service strategic and creative support from top-tier agencies such as Mother. Increasingly though, clients have hundreds of unique briefs that sit outside of these relationships. Briefs that require curated, specialist teams. Matching brand challenges with perfect-fit teams, built from a rich pool of independent talent has never been more needed nor more possible. In the words of Willy Wonka, we’re here to create a store like no other; otherwise, we wouldn’t bother”
Michael Wall, global CEO of Mother said: “Mother always has an eye out for creative entrepreneurs. In a more fragmented marketing environment, Dan and Harvey have developed an agency model that curates talent and creative opportunity in a relevant and innovative way.”
