Welcome to Q&Agency! Each week, I talk to agencies small and large and get to hear (in their words) what differentiates them and the experiences they create. To help bring some of that information to you, I'm showcasing an ongoing series of interviews with small to midsize interactive and design agencies. If you'd like to see your agency or an agency you work with here, let me know!

On March 16th, I talked with Tony Fernandes, the CEO and chief instigator at UEgroup and StudioUE. Edited excerpts from that conversation follow.

Forrester: Tell me a little bit about your agencies? Why the two names?

Tony: UEgroup is focused on the research-to-design phase, and StudioUE is focused on the design-to-development phase of delivering digital experiences. The separation came about because I conducted research with potential clients and realized that companies wanted to work with firms that could specialize in specific areas. The two brands cater to two audiences and live in separate office space to engender the separate focus our clients are looking for. We have some customers that are very research-oriented customers and others that are much more production-oriented customers. We’re taking our own advice and using a customer-centric approach to the way our brand is being presented.

Welcome to Q&Agency! Each week, I talk to agencies small and large and get to hear (in their words) what differentiates them and the experiences they create. To help bring some of that information to you, I'm showcasing an ongoing series of interviews with small and medium-size interactive and design agencies. If you'd like to see your agency or an agency you work with here, let me know!

On November 16th, I talked with Rick Nash, the VP of strategic marketing at Acquity Group. Edited excerps from that conversation follow.

Forrester: Tell me a little bit about Acquity Group?

Rick: Ah, that’s a long story. Our founders owned a company that rolled up into USWeb in Chicago. As many people know, USWeb saw explosive growth in the late 90s. It then merged with WhittmanHart and became marchFIRST. Before marchFIRST imploded during the dot-com boom, our founders left to found Acquity group. That was in 2001. It was the same four guys, along with a number of their colleagues from the dot-com era whom they had met along the way. I came from Sapient. Now we’ve grown to 450 people spread across nine offices including [those in] Irvine, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Scottsdale, Dallas, Kansas City, and Boise. We’re looking to expand into Asia, and we’ve begun that process with a Beijing office. We work with brands like AT&T, Motorola, McDonald’s, Best Buy, and General Motors. Our clients are big-name global brands, and we’re really proud of that.

Forrester: What is your elevator pitch?

Rick: Acquity group is an interdisciplinary digital consultancy. We create award-winning, multichannel, multidevice, multinational digital solutions for complex organizations. Our approach brings together strategy, creative, and technology to create differentiation and value in the digital space.

Once a consultant, always a consultant.

Having spent my entire 15-year career in the “advice giving” industry, between management consulting and advertising, I have found that the best advice is pragmatic, forward-thinking, grounded in research, and relevant to your needs. Relevance being the most important ingredient.

And the best way for me to provide relevant advice is to listen to your needs. 

So the purpose of my blog will be as much about understanding the issues and concerns of CMOs and Marketing Leaders as it will be about providing advice.

Coverage areas and topics I’m interested in.

Speaking of relevance, here are the topics that are relevant to me:

• I’ll be primarily focused on helping CMOs and Marketing Leadership Professionals create the new brand experience. In order to create the new brand experience, I will be challenging the standard assumptions about brand strategy, positioning, and integrated marketing strategy. That means I will be taking a broad look across the entire marketing mix to create new synergies between the Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. In particular, I will focus on helping marketers leverage emerging digital trends, capabilities, and technologies to enable the new brand experience.
• Secondarily, I will be focusing on helping marketers optimize their agency relationships to create the new brand experience – whether through brainstorming, benchmarking, digital thought leadership, consumer insights, digital strategies, or even agency selection.
• Finally, I will be focusing on helping marketers adapt their organization so they can deliver the new brand experience.

What you can expect from my blog.

It’s a place where we will:

Welcome to Q&Agency! Each week, I get to talk to agencies small and large and get to hear (in their words) what differentiates them and the experiences they create. To help bring some of that information to you, I'm showcasing an ongoing series of interviews with small to mid-size interactive and design agencies. If you'd like to see your agency or an agency you work with here, let me know!

On May 5th, I talked with Jeff Maling the President and Chief Experience Officer and Geoffrey Cubitt the President and Chief Technology Officer of Roundarch. Edited excerpts from that conversation follow.

Forrester: Tell me a little bit about your agency?

Jeff: Roundarch was founded in 2000 by Deloitte and WPP. At that time, the idea was to bring together the technology and program management skills of Deloitte with the creative skills of WPP to tackle large web problems. Over the past year or more that has translated into large digital problems of many types including mobile, touch screen, etc. But for the most part, we’ve stayed true to the vision because we’re specialized in large-scale digital solutions for fortune 500 companies, the government, and large international organizations. We have about 220 full-time employees primarily in New York and Chicago, smaller offices in Denver and Boston, and a virtual office in DC (where we mostly work in secure locations). Like any good agency or consultancy, we also have a few nomads who refuse to move into one of our offices.