Studiospace, an online marketplace for creative, digital and marketing services, has launched into the Australian and UK markets after securing $2.5 million in a VC funding round led by Fuel Ventures.
For brands, Studiospace provides access to a global community of agencies through a single umbrella contract. The smart platform matches briefs to the best candidate agencies and Studiospace underwrites the quality of every agency's work.
For agencies, joining Studiospace opens up access to a huge breadth of new clients, while also massively reducing their cost of sales through its streamlined matching and selection process. Additionally, the platform alleviates cash flow uncertainty by paying agencies on the day they invoice.
The move follows nine months of beta testing across the UK and Australia. Brands including Jaguar Land Rover, TAL, Aviva and Gala Games are already on board and working with the 100-strong roster of specialist agencies that span 16 service categories across 12 countries.
The business is helmed locally by Robin Scarborough, co-founder and managing director for Australia, and Kate Walker, general manager of client services.
Scarborough was a founding team member at Market Gravity, the global innovation agency acquired by Deloitte Digital in 2017, moving from the UK to Australia following the acquisition and spending three years as a Partner at Deloitte Digital.
Scarborough: “Big businesses have a talent access problem, even if they don’t realise it yet.
“The marketing landscape has evolved immensely in the last 50 years, but the way we buy and sell services for it hasn’t. As needs have become more complex, bundled arrangements with holding companies and big consultancies have become the default because of simple, single supplier relationships.
“However, the problem is that a lot of the deep specialism, innovation and big thinking now sits within independent agencies all around the world. It's hard for big businesses to easily find the best agencies for their projects, and often even harder to quickly contract them as a new supplier.
“Studiospace was born to solve this conundrum and the success we’ve achieved in such a short period is proof it’s working. Over 70 projects in just nine months with budgets up to $2million and now further venture capital backing. We’re re-imagining the holding company model for the digital era.”
Walker brings a wealth of agency insight and experience to the business, previously founding boutique brand agency Human as well as leading the delivery of bespoke agency team models for WPP’s largest clients across Australia and New Zealand.
Walker: “We really understand the pressure points for agencies and are hugely inspired to create a genuine alternative that works. One that helps them play a bigger game and build scale without the drag.
“We're not pitch doctors, we don't influence the selection process, but we are obsessive about discovering and bringing the very best indie talent to our platform and clients. It’s a win-win.”
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