“Wonderful humans, and very good at what they do. Let them help you make your business better.”
"They were innovative in their approach and really got us thinking about who we are at the core.”
"What a thoughtful and joyful experience. I want to start a new business and do it again."
You?
for founders and leadership teams.
The entry point for most engagements. A focused diagnostic of your current brand: positioning, perception, customer fit, competitive context, internal alignment and a clear, honest read on what's working, what isn't, and what your next decision should be. The output isn't a sixty-page deck. It's a short, well-argued recommendation: refine, reposition, rebrand, or do nothing yet.
A structured read on the current state of your brand, how it's working internally, how it's landing externally, where the gaps are, and what the right level of intervention is. It usually takes two to three weeks and is the cheapest way to find out whether you need a $10k tightening or a $100k rebrand before you commit to either.
Senior strategic input on the load-bearing decisions who you're for, where you compete, what makes you the only, and how the business should be organised around that answer. Delivered as a focused advisory engagement: workshops with leadership, position definition, narrative, messaging architecture, and the strategic principles that should guide every decision downstream.
Less ceremony, less production, more senior time. Agency strategy projects often bundle research, identity, design and rollout into one engagement. Advisory engagements strip out the execution and concentrate on the thinking: fewer deliverables, deeper conversations, shorter timeline. When the strategy is right, you take it to your in-house team, another agency, or to us for execution. We don't push the path.
An ongoing senior advisor at the table, without the cost of a full-time hire or a long agency retainer. Best for founders building a brand-led business who need expert input on positioning, communication and brand decisions as they come up not in a six-month chunk every two years. Typically a monthly retainer of advisory hours and recurring sessions with leadership.
When you're scaling and the brand decisions are coming faster than your team can handle them well. When you've hired internal marketers but they need a senior strategic ear. When you're between agencies or about to brief one. When you've outgrown your last strategy doc but aren't ready for a full rebrand. Fractional sits in the gap between we'll figure it out internally and let's hire an agency.
The honest part. A strategy that doesn't get implemented is a slide deck. Sometimes the right next step after advisory is an in-house team executing on the new direction. Sometimes it's another agency selected for the job. Sometimes when the scope, fit and timing line up,. it's our brand, rebranding or design team picking up where the advisory left off. We're transparent about which path makes sense and we're not the right answer to every brief.
We start by reading the situation. Brand audit, customer perception, competitor context, internal alignment, the numbers that matter. The question we're answering: what's actually going on here, and what level of intervention does it call for?
We reframe the brief in light of what the diagnostic reveals. Often the problem the business thinks it has isn't the problem worth solving and naming the right one is half the work.
The strategic work itself. Positioning, narrative, differentiation, naming, brand architecture whichever subset the engagement calls for. Delivered as focused thinking and clear recommendations, not exhaustive documentation.
Strategy without a decision is theatre. We work with leadership to make the call, what to do, what not to do, what to commit to publicly, what to leave behind. The decision is the deliverable.
A brand strategy consultant is a senior strategist who advises businesses on the load-bearing decisions behind their brand, positioning, audience, differentiation, naming, messaging, brand architecture without delivering the execution that follows.
The output of a consulting engagement isn't a logo, a website or a campaign; it's clarity on what the business should be known for, who it should be for, and how it should be organised around that answer. Most engagements run as a focused diagnostic, a structured advisory project, or an ongoing fractional retainer with leadership. The consultant is what you hire when the question is what should we do?, not yet who can build it?
Pricing reflects the engagement type, not a fixed package:
A diagnostic runs 2–3 weeks. A focused advisory project runs 4–10 weeks. Fractional engagements typically start with a 3-month commitment and continue month-to-month after that. Day-rate workshops are usually 1–3 days with a few days of preparation either side.
A consultant sells thinking. An agency sells thinking plus making. When the question is what should we do?, you want a consultant. When the question is who can deliver the thing we've already decided?, you want an agency. Most businesses need both at different times usually the consultant first, then the agency once the direction is clear. ONETOO does both, and we'll honestly tell you which you need.
Both available, your call. Some engagements stay purely advisory, we deliver the strategy, your team or another agency builds it. Some engagements bridge naturally into our agency work for execution. We never push the bridge; we just make it available when it fits. About a third of advisory engagements end with us building. The rest don't, and that's fine.
Engagements are led by Marcel McCarthy, ONETOO's Creative Director, with senior support from the wider studio for specific disciplines. The consultant offering exists precisely because a senior strategist's time is the bottleneck, so the work stays at that level rather than getting handed down.
"What an incredibly thoughtful and joyful experience with ONETOO. I want to start a new business just to enjoy the brand process with the ONETOO team again."
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