The Wee Agency (cropped)Collaboration Prize winner, The Wee Agency, is spread across disciplines as well as locations, with members of the creative and digital marketing consortium based in Edinburgh and Inverness.

Combining the creative talents of design specialists 2bcreative, IT firm Alchemy+ and PR and digital marketing consultancy, Muckle Media, each member has enjoyed renewed success since winning 2013’s Collaboration Prize. The consortium has even won an award for how it is run.

David Massey, director of Alchemy+, pictured far left with Muckle Media director Nathalie Agnew and 2bcreative director John Young, explains how winning made a huge difference to how the members work with each other.

The roots of The Wee Agency actually go back a number of years, but the decision to form a consortium came just as we heard about the Collaboration Prize, so it all came together really well.

My own company, Alchemy+ had been working with 2bcreative for a number of years, but we recognised the need for a partner to fill a missing piece of the puzzle, that being PR. Shortly afterwards, we established a working relationship with Muckle Media and so the beginnings of The Wee Agency was born.

We then heard about the Collaboration Prize, so we thought, “yeah, let’s go for it” and we applied.

Winning was great – and what we’ve been able to do with the award money since has been fantastic too, aside from actually forming the consortium.

We’ve done some research and produced a white-paper on digital marketing, which we’ve made available on our website, plus we’ve brought in a graduate position to bring some focused resource into marketing the Wee Agency. That helps keep the momentum going and provides a central point of contact for all, which makes things much simpler.

SCDI award

The trophy the Wee Agency received after winning the SCDI award for Excellence in Business.

You could say we’ve made the prize money go quite far, that’s because of the support we received from the likes of Co-operative Development Scotland, Scottish Enterprise and Scottish Council for Development and Industry (SCDI), who helped us look at the best ways to develop the consortium and how to put a structure in place to hold all that together.

By working together, we’ve been able to bid for bigger contracts and projects and offer a single point of contact for the client.

It’s much easier and simpler for all concerned if there is only one point of contact – we’ve actually won jobs just because it’s an easier process for the client.

In fact, the consortium has been so successful that in September we won an award from the SCDI for Excellence in Business and Engagement, recognising our innovative approach to digital marketing.

We would definitely recommend other businesses explore the consortium model as there are more benefits than you first think, not just for your own business, but for your clients and that alone can make a significant difference when it comes to winning new contracts.