WALKING IN THE CLIENT SHOES
Take a look around ad land and it’s a zig-zag of paths. There is not one path to rule them all when it comes to agency models, and no best course of action for clients to take.
Everyone has their own yellow brick road to deliver viable, sustainable, useful and intelligent models.
For Sugar & Partners, its road foundations were laid about nine years ago, when it began exploring intellectual property in IP partnerships.
In no way was it a unique model in ad land, and managing partner Jeremy Johnston says there are a few different structures around the world at the time and people were making interesting inroads into how it could work.
“I think the reason for it is just getting back to that really fundamental point of difference and value proposition that creative people and agencies have: creative business thinking.
“If you think about it in that way, it strips away all of the silos and sectional thinking — we are not here to deliver a creative department, we are not here to deliver ads, we are not here to deliver digital or retail or anything like that. We are here to bring useful, creative perspectives to business problems and opportunities.”
How it began
While Sugar & Partners made IP a central part of its structure in 2009, Johnston’s journey in IP partnerships began with Fatso, an online-based subscription service that mailed DVDs and video games around New Zealand.
He entered into a sweat equity partnership with the company’s CEO and co-founder, Rob Berman, and created the brand identity and launch campaign.
Given Fatso was a start-up, in lieu of payment Johnston took a small equity stake in the business.
“It really opened our eyes up to the
