SpecialGuest launches new agency model

Communication and arts company SpecialGuest has launched a new creative director-driven agency model that aims to redefine agency-brand relationships.

The move comes in response to the changing landscape of advertising, in which the traditional AOR model is evaporating and creative teams are no longer beholden to the top ad agencies.

SpecialGuest's 'flexible creative director collective', which includes co-founder, director and creative lead, Aaron Duffy, along with (pictured left-right, above) storyteller Steve Peck, experiential, branded content and tech-focused creative Elisa Tan, and designer Lake Buckley, will be available for project-based work, consulting-by-day or full campaigns. The roster is complemented by an internal strategic and conceptual core team of strategists, art directors, copywriters, designers, and producers.

“Our model has the know-how and resources to prototype, design, bid, develop, engineer and produce award-winning work,” Duffy says. “A big part of being creatively strategic today is knowing how to make things that have never been made before. We’ve done it over and over again and it’s led to the most powerful, breakthrough communications for brands. With increasing distribution channels that require an exponential amount more of content, there is a breakneck pace at which brands need to deliver creative content in order to stay relevant. A more nimble approach means that we can deliver more while keeping a strong creative core.”