New Company This Agency Launches in Amsterdam

Dutch creatives Ingmar Larsen and Sem Voortman have the guts to start something completely new during the Covid-19 crisis: This Agency. The duo want to to bridge the gap between strategic consultancy and creative agency. With this approach they believe they can facilitate the changing needs of brands in an uncertain time. 

Ingmar Larsen comments on the approach of the new agency: "We started around the time Covid-19 hit the world. The crisis has changed the way brands and agencies collaborate. Because we started right in the middle of the Covid-19 crisis, we’ve had to adjust to all these changes from the get go. 

"That makes us future-proof, because we didn’t have to adjust or change our whole way of working. We don’t know any better, in a way. And I think a lot of Covid-related changes are here to stay. The old world is gone.” 

Sem Voortman explains what sets them apart from the rest: “Brands need to realise that most people really aren’t interested in advertising. I don’t know a single person that likes the pre-rolls on YouTube for example. Yet lots of brands make them. That baffles me. People don’t want or need a brand to tell them what to buy. But people always have been, and always will be interested in stories. So we try to find the story in a brand. And then we find a way to tell that story in a way we would like ourselves. Because in the end, your own opinion is the only thing you really know. The rest is just data.”

By working partly as creative consultants and partly as a creative agency, the two can think along with in-house teams about the development of concepts, but also set up brand campaigns from A to Z. “We involve customers in our creative ideation from the first moment, which streamlines the whole process immensely," they say. 

Finding new clients is always a challenge, during Covid even more so. But the guys think they’ve found a clever around this. “We’re currently selling a short, two-hour creative workshop. We know a lot of brands are not jumping to start a long-term relationship with a brand new agency. But they do have communication-problems that need solving. By offering this workshop we think we have found the best of both worlds. 

"The brand’s immediate problems can be solved quickly without a lengthy collaboration to worry about. And we’ve introduced ourselves to the particular brand.”

The first work of This Agency, a Covid-19 campaign for the city of Amsterdam in collaboration with JCDecaux, was shown on billboards around the city last week. 

They also host a podcast series in which they interview colleagues from the industry. 

Ingmar is also busy becoming a father and writing a children’s book. And Sem is working on a YouTube series with his actor brother.