“Deconstructed Agency” Sssister Launches To Handle Brand Building In A Comprehensive Way

Cobbling together services on a piecemeal basis isn’t always the best brand-building strategy, but it’s often the way brand building is done.

Instead of the piecemeal approach, Stuart Hall, founder of Work By Holiday, a consultancy headquartered in Toronto that’s worked with the brands Auteur and Iräye, has learned from his extensive experience that collaboration between brands and service providers as early as possible leads to the best outcomes for his clients and ultimately consumers. To foster collaboration, his consultancy has partnered with End-To-End, a digital product design firm, and Commerce-UI, an IT consultancy focusing on e-commerce, to create Sssister.

Together at Sssister, the trio of agencies handle an array of brand-building tasks, including strategy, e-commerce development and product design. Its services are tailored to consumer goods brands across the beauty, wellness, homeware and fashion categories. 

“We’re essentially a hybrid model, a deconstructed agency, and we formed this creative partnership,” says Marek Czyz, founder of End-To-End. “Sssister is an interface for preferred partnerships between self-interested entities trying to secure their own success.”

Alex Bones, a partner at Work By Holiday, adds, “The clients we work with have to succeed so we look good. What we see too often is fantastic work going nowhere. There’s killer design, and then people think that’s the answer, and they see launch as the end point, not the start point. The business isn’t in place and the infrastructure’s not there. Sssister is recognition that it takes a village to raise a kid and it takes an ecosystem to support a brand.”

Sssister requires a six-month minimum commitment from brands and offers a 10-month service package to them. It concentrates on helping its brand clients hit measurable milestones rather than “nice-to-haves.” Its team construction allows for that. For instance, with Commerce UI involved from the outset, there can be careful consideration of web metrics like page load time and conversion rate along with elements of product design and branding.

When digital designers are brought in late in the brand creation process, the brand’s website may function well, but it lacks the brand’s personality and character. “Starting the project with all the right people involved from the get-go you can avoid so many mistakes,” says Czyz. “I’ve worked with many agencies and all of those legacy agencies are all facing the same problems. They were trying to do everything, but they were actually good at maybe one thing.”

He adds, “It’s this dynamic between brand creation, digital product design and technology that really has to go hand-in-hand pretty much from the start to the product launch—and it doesn’t end when the website is launched. That’s usually a new beginning.”