The Terrible Two’s

There are plenty of ways to celebrate a second birthday.

You could order a dinosaur cake. You could hire a magician or clown. You could book a venue with a ballpit and bumper cars, but seriously you’d make a few speeches and congratulate yourself on making it through another year.

Or, if you're AgencyLand, you could do something massively more interesting.

We’re delighted to announce that Blutui is partnering with AgencyLand and its founder, Ellie Hale, to celebrate the first two years of building a different kind of agency community.

AgencyLand prides itself on being a joyful community of like-minded agency professionals, bringing together agency founders and leaders who want to do more with their businesses while still enjoying the journey. It is a community built around connection, collaboration, generosity and a shared belief that there is a better way to build and run an agency.

That philosophy is evident across the AgencyLand community, where members share knowledge, support each other, collaborate and celebrate the ups and downs of agency life.

There is a refreshing absence of the usual agency chest-beating. Less ego. Less hustle for hustle's sake. More genuine connection, creativity, ambition and people helping each other build better businesses.

That feels very familiar to us.

A birthday with a terrible twist

For the second birthday celebrations, we decided to lean into one of the more obvious themes of turning two: the terrible twos.

Because while the terrible twos are generally associated with tantrums, stubbornness and an alarming refusal to do what you're told, there is another way of looking at them.

Two-year-olds are curious. They have energy. They question everything. They don't particularly care about convention. They want to try things for themselves and, occasionally, they come up with surprisingly good ideas.

For independent agencies, we think those are pretty useful characteristics.

The best indie agencies have always had a bit of the terrible two about them. They don't necessarily accept that things have to be done the way they've always been done. They experiment. They move quickly. They care deeply about the work and their people. And they have the freedom to make decisions that would take three committees, a procurement process and a quarterly board meeting somewhere else.

That's exactly the kind of agency Blutui was built for.

Ellie Hale, Founder of AgencyLand

Ellie Hale puts it beautifully:

“At AgencyLand we are really trying to push the boundaries of how agencies operate and what success looks like.
We encourage members of our community to have a positive impact on their team, clients and industry, to stay ambitious and creative whilst working smarter not harder, to support each other and collaborate and to enjoy the journey.
Blutui are right up our street and we are so proud to partner with them. Our values and ethos are so well aligned, they are such a good fit for our community. They care about agencies and are supporting the new agency model to be progressive, lean and to stay ahead. We are thrilled to see how this partnership develops.”

That last part is particularly important to us.

Blutui isn't interested in simply putting another piece of software in front of agencies. We built Blutui because we believe the agency model is changing, and that independent agencies should have access to technology that helps them become more capable, more efficient and more competitive without sacrificing the things that made them independent in the first place.

Graeme Blake, CEO of Blutui

“There's a reason we went with the terrible twos idea for this birthday,” says Graeme Blake, CEO of Blutui.

“AgencyLand has a really strong sense of joy, energy, creativity and community, and that feels very close to Blutui's sweet spot. The best indie agencies tend to have a healthy willingness to buck convention. They question why things are done a certain way, they try new things and they aren't afraid to have a bit of fun along the way.

“That is exactly the kind of agency we want Blutui to support.

“We're not trying to turn independent agencies into miniature versions of big network agencies. Quite the opposite. We want to give them technology that lets them stay lean, move faster and punch well above their weight.

“So celebrating AgencyLand's second birthday with a campaign built around the terrible twos felt pretty much perfect.

“And let's be honest, after two years of building something new in the agency world, a little bit of rebellion is probably appropriate.”

Here's to the next two

AgencyLand has spent its first two years proving that an agency community doesn't need to be built around competition, ego or endless growth targets.

It can be about being ambitious while still being human. About building great businesses without making work your entire life. About sharing what you've learned, helping someone else avoid the pothole you just fell into and, importantly, enjoying the journey with a bunch of like-minded people.

That's a community we are very happy to be part of.

Happy second birthday, AgencyLand.

Here's to the next two years of doing things a little differently.

And, naturally, behaving terribly.