It feels like every other advertising/marketing/design agency want to be selling fewer services and building more products. They want to be able to “make money while they sleep”, to create something with tangible value that they own, and also to create added flexibility in their working environment.
37Signals have done this so well, converting their design business into several product businesses and a popular web development framework.
Here is the start of my list of Australian agencies who are building their own products. More specifically those building digital products. Rightly or wrongly I’ve also excluded media properties, so companies like First Digital are off the list.
Agency:Â Cogent
“Cogent creates useful software that gets results.”
Product: Eventer
“A front row seat where viewers flick their attention from speaker, to slides, or both.”
Agency: Icelab
“Interactive designers and developers that can provide you with strategic planning, design and application solutions.”
Products: RentMonkey
Build a lease in minutes and take control of your rental property.
DecafSucks
Coffee review site which includes Dispatch coffee subscription service.
Agency: Inventive Labs
“Web problem solvers”
Products: Bookish
“A joyful ebook platform for booksellers, publishers and readers…”
Agency: Lettuce
“Melbourne based digital agency”
Product: Iceberg
“It’s the swiss army knife for small business”
Agency: Native Digital
Digital marketing and product development
Products:TalkBack
Mobile question and answers application for conferences
FanBomb – Social media flashmobs
I’m sure I’m missing some names from the list. Drop them in the comments, shoot me a line at ned@nativedigital.com.au, or badger me on Twitter.
